Field Marks: 6.25 in. One of most familiar and widespread North American songbirds. Highly variable, primarily in West. Habitats vary from weedy fields and brushy areas to open woods, backyards and gardens, desert scrub, and salt marshes. Has distinctive habit of pumping long, rounded tail in flight. Adults brown above with dark streaks on back and gray streak on crown; tail dark, with rusty tinge; face with broad gray eyebrow and dark mustache; throat white; underparts whitish with brown streaks and dark central breast spot. Juvenile buffier below, more finely streaked, often without central breast spot; resembles adult by first winter. Song variable; usually three to four clear introductory notes followed by a musical trill, dropping in pitch. Call note a loud "chimp."
Range: Breeds from s. Alaska east to w. Newfoundland and south to New Mexico, ne. Kansas, n. Arkansas, and n. Georgia. Winters from s. Alaska through most of U.S. and n. Mexico.
