STATUS: Common in breeding season.
HABITAT: Prefers dense thickets of shrubby edge habitat, but also inhabits shrubs, briars, vines along woodland borders, dry marsh edges, roadside shrubs, old house sites, abandoned fields, and fence rows.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Low, dense, shrubby vegetation.
NEST: Hides nest about 3 to 10 feet above the ground in almost any dense woody vegetation such as multiflora rose, barberry, lilac, mock-orange, osage orange, a hedge, or conifer tree.
FOOD: Gleans food from the ground; about half of diet is insects. In the fall, eats a variety of fruits.
REFERENCES: Forbush and May 1955, DeGraff et al. 1980, Nickell 1965, Terres 1980.