STATUS: Common.
HABITAT: Inhabits arid montane woodlands from 6,000 to 9,000 feet, preferring scrubby brush interspersed with pinyon-juniper and yellow pine. Frequents dense growths of low scrub oaks, mountain-mahogany, and chokecherry, rocky steep slopes and ravines, chaparral, riparian willow and alder thickets, and open spruce and fir forests near scrubby thickets.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Scrubby vegetation for nesting.
NEST: Builds nest on the ground, embedded among dead leaves or in loose soil, sometimes at the base of a bush, or hidden under a tussock of grass, but usually concealed by overhanging vegetation.
FOOD: Forages on the ground, as well as in foliage, and hawks insects on the wing.
REFERENCES: Bent 1953a, Griscom and Sprunt 1979, Terrill in Farrand 1983c, Van Tyne 1936.