Botteri's Sparrow

The Botteri’s Sparrow seems to be another largely overlooked bird.  The literature doesn’t even make it clear if this species should be placed in the genus Aimphilia alongside species like the Rufous-crowned Sparrow or Peucaea along with things like Cassin’s Sparrow.  The current standing is Peucaea, but it seem tenious.  A rather old, but somewhat lovely taxonomic paper on the species by J. Dan Webster A Revision of the Botteri Sparrow, explains why this might be: “The birds are such late migrants, especially the Mexican races, that many collectors have left the field before the birds begin breeding…. [and] the species has eluded fall and early winter collection almost entirely.”

Although this was written in 1959, it seems to remain the case.  This species continues to fly under the radar of many Mexican birders (that is to say, birders in Mexico.)  Although their distribution extends from the southern US to Central America, and their chosen tall-grass habitat is (relatively speaking) ample, few of my friends have ever heard of this species.  Looking at eBird data shows the same - sightings are few and scattered.  There is no reason to believe that this bird is particularly threatened, as they are able to thrive in non-native grasslands according to Jones and Bock’s paper The Botteri’s Sparrow and Exotic Arizona Grasslands: An Ecological Trap or Habitat Regained?  They are simply hard to find.  It is solitary and shy species that rarely emerges from low in the grass except to sing.  As such, it’s a species that draws my personal attention.