STATUS: Abundant.
HABITAT: Inhabits coniferous and northern deciduous forests, favoring semiopen wooded areas with dense undergrowth or brush, including brushy clearings, cutover woodlands, second-growth, forest edges, borders of swamps and bogs, and other shrubby growth. Seldom found far from dense cover.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Open woodlands with dense cover in the form of dense woody undergrowth, thickets, or brush.
NEST: Usually builds nest on the ground at the edge of a clearing in areas with small trees, clumps of shrubs, and extensive ground cover of herbs, grasses, and often blueberries. Usually locates nest near a large object such as a tree, stump, or log that possibly serves as a lookout perch; conceals nest by surrounding ground vegetation. Occasionally nests above ground in dense bushes, roots of upturned stumps, or in brush heaps.
FOOD: Feeds primarily on the seeds of grasses and weeds, and on wild fruits, but consumes a considerable quantity of insects when available. Forages largely on the ground, scratching in leaf litter or gleaning weeds and grasses for its food.
REFERENCES: DeGraff et al. 1980, Forbush and May 1955, Lowther and Falls in Bent 1968c.