Stats

Lifespan: Up to 12 yrs
Size: Medium
Diet: Omnivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Pair
Biome: Temperate shrubland
Range: North America
Movement: Hopping
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Camouflage
Status: Common

About

A large, plain brown sparrow that haunts chaparral, backyards, and parks along the California coast and into Baja California. Famously territorial, it will spend hours attacking its own reflection in car mirrors and windows.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A small clutch of speckled eggs is incubated in a cup nest, turned and kept warm by the parent.
2.
hatchling
A pink, blind hatchling is fed by its parents in the nest, gaping its bill at every visit.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to fly and to forage close to its parents.
4.
adult
Fully grown with adult plumage and song.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Passerellidae
Genus: Melozone
Species: Melozone crissalis