STATUS: Common.
HABITAT: Inhabits freshwater marshes, marshy borders of lakes and streams, and occasionally brackish and salt marshes. Prefers areas with shallow water and abundant emergent vegetation.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Wetlands with sedge and cattail edge.
NEST: Usually constructs nests in cattails or sedges a few inches above shallow water, that are often covered with a loose canopy of vegetation and well attached to surrounding vegetation or on a clump of grass or tussock.
FOOD: Consumes a diet that is about two-thirds insects. Also eats small fishes, frogs, mollusks, crustaceans, leeches, and earthworms. Climbs easily on reeds and in bushes to reach seeds and berries, and also eats grass seeds, duckweeds, wild oats, and rice.
REFERENCES: Berger 1951, DeGraff et al. 1980, Horak 1970, Johnsgard 1975a, Low and Mansell 1983, Walkinshaw 1937, Zimmerman 1977.