Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Henslow's Sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii)

Henslow's Sparrow [lateral view of singing male]. Photograph Credit: Edmund K. LeGrand; Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness, White County, Tennessee; 22 April 2008.

Abundance: Very Uncommon during spring, summer, and especially during fall; recorded in 15 Regional counties, 6 in Kentucky and 9 in Tennessee, but irregularly present at most sites (Map of UCR Distribution); the Regional population trend is quite difficult to determine because of the small and sporadic breeding population (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Summer Resident; Transients undoubtedly make up some of the birds present during spring and fall; Audio (Linda C. Robertson; Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness, White County, Tennessee; 26 May 2010); photographs (see above and links below).

Regional High Count: 72 (8 July 2006; Campbell Farm, Cumberland County, Tennessee; Stephen J. Stedman, Joseph E. Mast; Knight 2006d); Next Highest Count: 22 (17 July 2004; Ano strip mines, Pulaski County, Kentucky; Roseanna M. Denton; Palmer-Ball and McNeeley 2004d).

Information on Records of First Occurrence in Each County: 

Kentucky

August 1949 (1) Clinton County (Burt L. Monroe; Mengel 1965).

6 July 1990 (1—singing) Metcalfe County (B. Lemon Palmer-Ball, Jr., pers. com.).

17 July 1991 (1—singing) Goochtown Loop Rd., Pulaski County (Jackie B. Elmore, Sr. [notes]).

17 April 2002 (2 [number verified by observer]) Wayne County (Roseanna M. Denton; Busroe 2002c [incorrectly cites 10 as the number of individuals present]).

6–9 May 2007 (1–2—singing) Charles Turner Rd., Barren County (Stephen J. Stedman, Barbara H. Stedman et al.); but see also Out-of-Season (Winter) Records (below).

6 May 2008 (4—singing) Holmes Bend Rd. (3) and West Egypt Rd. (1), Adair County (Barbara H. Stedman), a Spring BirdBlitz record.

Tennessee

22 October 1994 (1) Warren County (Susan N. McWhirter; Witt 1995a), also an eBird record.

4 July 2004 (3—singing and seen) Heritage Marsh, White County (Stephen J. Stedman, Edmund K. LeGrand; Casteel 2004d; Stedman and LeGrand 2005); photo (9 July 2004, Carol D. Williams).

27 June 2006 (1—singing and seen) County House Rd., DeKalb County (Stephen J. Stedman, Carol D. Williams photo [30 June 2006]).

1 July 2006 (17—singing and seen) Campbell Farm, east of Mayland, Cumberland County (Stephen J. Stedman, Joseph E. Mast photo).

12 May 2007 (2—singing) Walker Farm Rd., Monterey Lake, Putnam County (Barbara H. Stedman), a Spring Bird Count record.

26 April 2008 (1—singing and seen) Salt Lick Creek Rd., Jackson County (Stephen J. Stedman, Douglas A. Downs), a Spring BirdBlitz record.

23 May 2009 (1—singing) McDonald Rd., Overton County (Stephen J. Stedman).

25 July 2011 (1—singing) Brodio Rd., Morgan County (Stephen J. Stedman).

1 May 2012 (1—singing) DeBord Cemetery, Bledsoe County (Edmund K. LeGrand), a Spring BirdBlitz record.

Out-of-Season (Winter) Records:

26 December 1963–2 January 1964 (4) Barren County, Kentucky (Russell Starr; Monroe et al. 1988), includes a CBC record.

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Early Spring: 27 March 2007 (Cumberland County, Tennessee; Joseph E. Mast).

    Late Fall: 31 October 2011 (Warren County, Tennessee; Susan N. McWhirter), an eBird record; see also Out-of-Season (Winter) Records (above).

    Note: Spring arrival usually complete by late April, while fall departure appears to be largely complete by mid- to late October.  Dates of earliest spring arrival and latest fall departure in the Region for the period of 2002–2011 follow:

Breeding: Confirmed (Recent).  Adults with food for young and dependent juveniles were observed 17 July 2004 at the Ano strip mines, Pulaski County, Kentucky (Roseanna M. Denton); juveniles were observed at the Heritage Marsh, White County, Tennessee, 20 August 2004 (Stephen J. Stedman, Douglas A. Downs; Casteel 2004d); three juveniles were observed 8 July 2006 at the Campbell Farm, Cumberland County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman, Joseph E. Mast; Knight 2006a).

Habitat: Fields that have lain fallow for several years and that harbor vegetation growing to a height of 40–80 cm; it is important that some standing dead vegetation from earlier years be a component of the vegetational structure of fields that harbor this species.  These fields may be fairly moist, as at the Heritage Marsh, White County, Tennessee, or fairly dry, as at the Campbell Farm, Cumberland, Tennessee, and the Ano strip mines, Pulaski Co., Kentucky.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Foray Results: A summary of data from UCR Forays follows (to view a map displaying foray data for a county or a sub-Region for this species, click on the name of an underlined county or state below):

* Because some foray blocks fall into two or three counties, the total of blocks in the Kentucky or Tennessee portions of the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the counties of each portion of the Region; similarly, because some blocks fall into both states, the total of blocks for the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the two states.

Remarks: The highly ephemeral Henslow's Sparrow colony at the Campbell Farm, Cumberland County, Tennessee, was briefly (2007–2008) the largest (c. 70 singing males) in the Region, with the second-largest (c. 20 singing males) being the more stable colony at the Ano strip mines, Pulaski County, Kentucky. In 2009 the entire population on the Campbell Farm was absent, presumably as a result of disking of the formerly fallow fields at that site, and burning at the Ano strip mines reduced the number of Henslow's there.  A noteworthy result of the 2010 UCR Foray in Cumberland County, Tennessee, was the failure to find Henslow's Sparrows in any of that county's 75 blocks, despite 200+ hours of surveying in the county during that event. Since its discovery in 2007, the colony at the Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness, White County, Tennessee, has been relatively stable at 10–20 singing males.  An upturn in the number of sites hosting this sparrow during the mid-2000s was followed by an apparent downturn toward the end of that decade.

    Trend analysis of North American Breeding Bird Survey data for this species underwent a sea-change in 2008.  Prior to that year, the continental trend for Henslow's Sparrow was strongly negative (–7.6%/year) for years from 1966 to 1999 ( Pardieck and Sauer 2000) and even more negative (–8.6%/year) for years from 1966 to 2003 (Pardieck and Sauer 2007), but a new analytical method was implemented in 2008, resulting in a considerably less negative (–0.6%/year) trend at the continental level (Ziolkowski et al. 2010).

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited