Passerella iliaca

Composed of four groups which may represent distinct species: iliaca (Red Fox-Sparrow), unalaschcensis (Sooty Fox-Sparrow), schistacea (Slate-colored Fox-Sparrow), and megarhyncha (Thick-billed Fox-Sparrow) (AOU 1998). Burns and Zink (1990) found that populations from the Sierra Nevada-Cascade axis, Transverse Range (southern California), Great Basin, and Rocky Mountains are genetically homogeneous. Zink (1994) examined rangewide geographic variation in mtDNA restriction sites and reported the following results. Haplotypes fall into four phylogeographic groups that correspond to groups defined by plumage characters. Within each group, these is little geographic variation in mtDNA restriction sites, but there is geographic variation in plumage coloration and body size. Hybridization is limited between between all pairs of groups except "P. megarhyncha" and "P. schistacea," for which mtDNA evidence suggests a narrow contact zone along the interface of the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada/Cascades. Morphometric characters intergrade over a broader area, suggesting that different processes are responsible for the two gradients. The number of biological species represented ranges from one to four, depending on the degree of hybridization tolerated. The mtDNA and plumage characters suggest four phylogenetic species: P. iliaca, P. megarhyncha, P. unalaschcensis, and P. schistacea. Rising (1996) listed three species: P. iliaca (Red Fox Sparrow), P. unalaschcensis (Sooty Fox Sparrow), and P. schistacea (Slate-colored Fox Sparrow).

BREEDING: western and northern Alaska, northern Yukon, Mackenzie, southwestern Keewatin, northern Manitoba, northern Ontario, northern Quebec, and northern Labrador south along the Pacific coast to northwestern Washington, in the western mountains to southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, and, east of the Rockies, to central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, central Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland (AOU 1983). Breeding strongly suspected in Sierra San Pedro Martir, Baja California (Erickson and Wurster 1998). NON-BREEDING: southern Alaska and southern British Columbia southward through Pacific states to northern Baja California, and from Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, southern Ontario, southwestern Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and southern Newfoundland south to northern Sonora (casually), New Mexico, Texas, Gulf coast, and Florida (AOU 1983).