Get to Know the Plateau - Black-throated Sparrow

The Get to Know the Plateau series spotlights a variety of species that live on the Colorado Plateau, a unique area comprised of portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and many sovereign Tribal Nations.

Black-throated Sparrow

The striking Black-throated Sparrow.

Doug Greenberg (CC BY-NC)

Habitat and Ecology

A year-round breeding and wintering resident throughout Arizona. The Black-throated Sparrow breeds in the northern regions of Arizona and other areas on the Colorado Plateau, preferring semi-open habitat of evenly spaced shrubs and trees. Common in canyons, and areas of desert scrub composed of creosote bush, ocotillo, cholla, and mesquite, interspersed with taller plants such as pinion-juniper and crucifixion thorn.

The Black-throated Sparrow is a ground forager, omnivorous in the breeding season and a granivore in the winter, when insects are less abundant. Frequently seen hopping and foraging along the lower levels of creosote and antelope bush. Hunts grasshoppers, caterpillars, walking sticks, robber flies, and dragonflies. Nests situated in low lying bushes.

Laboratory and field tests of the Black-throated Sparrow revealed they possess extreme stress tolerance in high heat, maintaining a water balance in drought through consuming insects and succulent vegetation.

Description

The Black-throated Sparrow is a medium sized sparrow, found throughout the southwestern U.S. and Mexico in arid upland and lowland habitats. The Black-throated Sparrow is sexually monomorphic with males and females sharing an adult plumage pattern.

Adults possess a sleek tannish grey coloration along the back, with an unmarked, light grey belly. A strong, white eyebrow and white malar stripe contrast sharply with the unmistakable black throat that trails onto the chest. Black-throated Sparrow wing pigmentations vary between light to rich cinnamon.

Song is complex and delicate; twinkling and metallic; distinctive. Males sing atop shrubs to establish and defend territory. Males will mate guard their paired female and established nest; courting and nest-building pairs frequently sing a “pair-reunion” duet which consists of the male and female singing an upslurred series of bubbly tinkling notes, reminisce of a moment of shared excitement.

Black-throated Sparrow

NPS

Conservation Status and Threats

Common and abundant. Songbird nests are sensitive to human disturbance at nesting and roosting sites. Fire suppression throughout the southwest contributes to an increase in shrub thickness, creating unpreferred habitat for the Black-throated Sparrow, who tend to choose more evenly spaced, semi-open habitat. High intensity wildfires created by areas of fuel build-up have the potential to destroy large areas of Black-throated Sparrow habitat at once. Open areas colonized by cheatgrass also pose unnaturally high risks of fire and natural habitat degradation.

Black-throated Sparrow

Andy Bridges/NPS

Of Note

U.S. breeders are progressively greyer from west to east. Birds with larger body sizes are recorded in the north and decrease modestly when moving south. Can be victim of brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds. Black-throated Sparrows in desert habitats with restricted access to water can suppress stress responses to heat and still breed in severe drought conditions.

References

Johnson, M. J., C. van Riper, and K. M. Pearson (2020). Black-throated Sparrow (Amphispiza bilineata), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

Written by Jane Bailey for the Southern Colorado Plateau Network (2025).
Printable .pdf version.

Designed by Christopher Calvo