A Sparrow in Hand

Story and Photos by Aydelette Kelsey

Ask avian ecologist Marianne Korosy and she will confirm: a sparrow in the hand is worth more, far more, than two in the bush or prairie.¬Ý¬Ý Korosy should know.¬Ý She recently organized a ’ÄúSparrow Roundup’Äù at Kissimmee Prairie State Preserve on behalf of the University of Central Florida.

Getting a handle on these elusive creatures takes practice and patience.¬Ý But it’Äôs infinitely rewarding. Data collected from the roundup will help researchers study species diversity, density, abundance and habitat preference, information that can be used to assess trends and protect sensitive habitats.

Grasshopper sparrows, the focus of this three-year study, are rare and imperiled. Few survive longer than five years.¬Ý They tend to scamper along the ground hidden by mats of grasses, saw palmettos, runner oaks and the other prairie plants, flying only when flushed from their habitat.¬Ý Even then, they fly low.¬Ý That makes them hard to spot ’Äì and even harder to study.

But it makes them easy pickings for hawks and other birds of prey.

Combine all those factors, toss in diminishing habitat, and it’Äôs easy to understand why local and sometimes regional populations of these birds are vulnerable to extinction, says Korosy.

Rounding up the sparrows required researchers and volunteers to drag a 300-foot rope across the prairie toward a 1200-foot-long array of mist nets.¬Ý Over the course of four days last winter, 151 birds were captured, measured, weighed, banded and released.¬Ý Of those, 67 were eastern grasshopper sparrows, and 7 were endangered Florida grasshopper sparrows.¬Ý

Data from the winter roundup is being combined with data collected over several months from smaller arrays at eight different locations in the preserve. This is especially useful for tracking three sparrows from the genus Ammodramus:¬Ý Henslow’Äôs, LeConte’Äôs, and grasshopper ’Äì all masters of evasion.¬Ý Even during breeding season, although males will briefly pop up to sing, these birds are hard to identify.¬Ý The LeConte’Äôs sparrow, for example, is virtually undocumented in south central Florida in winter.¬Ý Researchers at Kissimmee were surprised this year to find two LeConte’Äôs on the prairie.

Less surprising was the site fidelity exhibited by grasshopper sparrows, which tend to stay close or return annually to the area from which they hatched.¬Ý Studies also show that while some sparrows, like the common savannah, prefer the dry prairie, others such as the Ammodramus species seem to favor wetter areas near the margins of large marshes or mosaics of wet and damp but not dry grounds, confirming yet another reason to preserve seasonal wetlands.

While sparrows are common in the Tampa Bay area, prairie-loving grasshopper sparrows are not.¬Ý Bachman’Äôs sparrows are one of the few native species that actually nest here and at Kissimmee; like grasshopper sparrows, they favor saw palmetto habitat and may be spotted locally in pine flatwoods.

Winter months also bring a steady influx of migrant sparrows from up north, including the occasional grasshopper sparrow, Nelson’Äôs sharp-tailed, the rare saltmarsh sharp-tailed and savannah sparrows.¬Ý Korosy’Äôs best bets for local birdwatchers include Brooker Creek and Weedon Island preserves and Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County.

But Tampa Bay residents need not go farther than their grocery store parking lot to get a gander at these tiny brown-grey birds.¬Ý The common house (or English) sparrow nests pretty much anywhere, says Korosy, who notes its affinity for hanging out in parking lots and backyards.¬Ý Turns out the house sparrow is not a true sparrow but a weaver finch, part of a family of old world birds.¬Ý Like so many others, this non-native bird was brought to the new world to battle an agricultural pest, the cutworm.¬Ý Brash, bold and well-adapted to living among humans, the bird ’Äì which Shakespeare likened to angels that could awaken dreamers from feathery beds ’Äì is a commoner here.

Clearwater resident Aydelette Kelsey is a free-lance photographer and graphic designer. Her work can be viewed online at www.akcreative.com.

About the Research

The 2006 Winter Sparrow Roundup was directed by Clearwater resident Marianne Korosy, who is pursuing her doctoral degree in conservation biology at UCF.¬Ý Only researchers and technicians with special permits are allowed to handle grasshopper sparrows.¬Ý The demands of the research ’Äì hauling a 300-foot-long rope through the prairie to flush out the birds ’Äì made volunteers a necessity.¬Ý They answered the call ’Äì more than 85 volunteers in all, ranging in age from 8 to 80 ’Äì from local Audubon chapters, online listservs dedicated to birds, and informal solicitations parsed out under the radar much like the beloved sparrows they would come together to study.¬Ý Joining Floridians were volunteers from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado and California.

This spring, Korosy and her team begin focusing on Florida grasshopper and Bachman’Äôs sparrows (also found in the Tampa Bay region), color-banding the males of both species, and mapping their territories using spotting scopes and GPS readings. ’ÄúWe’Äôll search for the nests of both species’Äù she explains, ’Äúmonitoring the number of nestlings that fledge and then radio-tracking the Florida grasshopper sparrow fledglings to determine survival rates through the winter months next year.’Äù

For information on future sparrow roundups, contact Donna Aiken at donna.aiken@dep.state.fl.us, or Korosy at mkorosy@mail.ucf.edu.