Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.902234
Element CodeABPBX97020
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAves
OrderPasseriformes
FamilyPasserellidae
GenusArtemisiospiza
SynonymsAmphispiza belli(Cassin, 1850)
Other Common NamesBell's sparrow (EN) Bruant de Bell (FR)
Concept ReferenceAmerican Ornithologists' Union (AOU). Chesser, T.R., R.C. Banks, F.K. Barker, C.Cicero, J.L. Dunn, A.W. Kratter, I.J. Lovette, P.C. Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen Jr., J.D.Rising, D.F. Stotz and K.Winker. 2013. Fifty-Fourth Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 130(3):558-571.
Taxonomic CommentsArtemisiospiza nevadensis was formerly considered conspecific with A. belli, but treated as a separate species on the basis of differences in mitochondrial DNA, morphology, and ecology, and limited gene flow at the contact zone in eastern California (Cicero and Johnson 2007, Cicero and Koo 2012) (AOU 2013).
Populations of A. b. canescens of the San Joaquin Valley and Mojave Desert differ in morphology and ecology from belli and may represent a distinct species. Analyses of mtDNA indicate that Mojave Desert populations of canescens are distinctive, whereas canescens from the San Joaquin Valley share haplotypes with coastal belli (Cicero and Koo 2012) (AOU 2013).
Formerly placed in the genus Amphispiza, but genetic data (Klicka and Spellman 2007, DaCosta et al. 2009) indicate that the new genera are not closely related (AOU 2012). This was formerly proposed in Klicka and Banks (2011).
Conservation Status
Review Date1999-11-20
Change Date1996-12-04
Edition Date1999-11-20
Edition AuthorsRevisions by M. KOENEN and D.W. MEHLMAN.
Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences81 to >300
Rank ReasonsLarge range in the western U.S. and Mexico; fairly common and stable in many areas, with local declines.
Range Extent CommentsBREEDING: central Washington, eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, southwestern Wyoming, and northwestern Colorado south to southern California, central Baja California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, northeastern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico (AOU 1983, Martin and Carlson 1998). NON-BREEDING: central California, central Nevada, southwestern Utah, northern Arizona, and central New Mexico south to central Baja California, northwestern mainland of Mexico, and western Texas (AOU 1983, Martin and Carlson 1998). Sedentary subspecies BELLI: foothills of the West coast (northern California to northwestern Baja California) and the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada in California (Johnson and Marten 1992). Subspecies CANESCENS: breeds in the San Joaquin Valley and northern Mohave Desert in California and extreme western Nevada, winters in the southwestern U.S. (Johnson and Marten 1992). Subspecies NEVADENSIS: breeds from central interior Washington eastward to southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado, south to east-central California, central Nevada, northeastern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico; winters in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico (Johnson and Marten 1992).
Occurrences CommentsNo exact figures available.
Threat Impact CommentsHABITAT LOSS, FRAGMENTATION: Sagebrush shrublands are vulnerable to a number of activities that reduce or fragment sagebrush habitat, including land conversion to tilled agriculture, urban and suburban development, and road and power-line rights of way. Range improvement programs remove sagebrush by burning, herbicide application, and mechanical treatment, replacing sagebrush with annual grassland to promote forage for livestock. West of the Rocky Mountains, in the Great Basin and interior Columbia Basin, there is concern that livestock grazing can damage soil, specifically the delicate cryptogamic layer, to the extent that vegetative succession is altered and recovery is hampered (Saab et al. 1995).
INVASIVE GRASSES: Cheatgrass readily invades disturbed sites, and has come to dominate the grass-forb community of more than half the sagebrush region in the West, replacing native bunchgrasses (Rich 1996). Crested wheatgrass and other non-native annuals have also fundamentally altered the grass-forb community in many areas of sagebrush shrub-steppe.
FIRE: Cheatgrass has altered the natural fire regime in the western range, increasing the frequency, intensity, and size of range fires. Fire kills sagebrush and where non-native grasses dominate, the landscape can be converted to annual grassland as the fire cycle escalates, removing habitat for sage sparrow (Paige and Ritter 1998).
BROOD PARASITISM: An occasional host for brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), and may abandon nest (e.g., see Reynolds 1981). Prior to European-American settlement, was probably largely isolated from cowbird brood parasitism, but is now vulnerable where the presence of livestock, land conversion to agriculture, and fragmentation of shrublands creates a contact zone between the species (Rich 1978).
INTRODUCED ANIMALS: Pigs, goats, and other grazing animals introduced onto San Clemente Island, California, reduced habitat and local numbers of the subspecies declined (Everatt et al. 1994). Feral cats near human habitations may increase predation (Martin and Carlson 1998).
PREDATION: In Oregon, predation by Townsend ground squirrel (Spermophilus townsendi) affected reproductive success when squirrel densities were high; populations in southeastern Washington and northern Nevada incurred high rates of nest predation, probably mainly by gopher snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus) (Rotenberry and Wiens 1989). Loggerhead shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus) prey on both adults and altricial young in nest, and can significantly reduce nest production (Reynolds 1979). Other predators include common raven (Corvus corax) and merlin (Falco columbarius; Martin and Carlson 1998).