STATUS: Common.
HABITAT: Prefers wet clearings in early stages of regeneration. Also inhabits peat or laurel bogs with scattered young or dwarf spruces and tamaracks, and riparian willow and alder thickets.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Shrubby vegetation.
NEST: Generally nests on the ground, sometimes in loose colonies. Usually builds nest at the base of a small tree or shrub, often well concealed in a grass hummock. Occasionally, places nest above the ground in low, dense tangles of vegetation.
FOOD: Mostly eats insects (about 93 percent of diet) gleaned from the ground and twigs or caught by flycatching. Also eats some spiders and fruit pulp.
REFERENCES: Beal 1907, Bent 1953b, Griscom and Sprunt 1979, Petersen in Farrand 1983c, Stewart 1973.