STATUS: Locally common.
HABITAT: Inhabits open country with brushy and weedy fields, hedges, edges of woods, roadside shrubs, gullies, thickets along streambanks, shelterbelts, and gardens.
NEST: Nests in a variety of deciduous shrubs, small trees, and vines. Attaches shallow cup nest to twigs or other supporting vegetation, 3 to 9 feet above the ground, in bushes, low trees, or vine tangles. Raises two and sometimes three broods each year; susceptible to parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds.
FOOD: Mostly eats vegetable matter, which is gleaned from the ground or seed heads of grass, but also some animal matter (insects and a few spiders.)
REFERENCES: Bent 1968a, Harrison 1979, Johnsgard 1979, Sykes in Farrand 1983c, Terres 1980.