Habitat
Subtropical and tropical lowland dry grassland and shrubland, temperate grassland and shrubland. From sea-level - 1,300 m, occasionally up to 3,000 m.
Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) [XC327325]
by Roland Rumm from Spindletop Farm, United States (song)
Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) [XC691451]
by Christopher McPherson from Milford Town (near Amherst), Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States (call)
Subspecies
Genus, as currently delimited, is probably polyphyletic. Molecular studies suggest that it is closest to two Neotropical species, Grassland Sparrow (Ammodramus humeralis) and Yellow-browed Sparrow (Ammodramus aurifrons), all in a clade that includes some of the Aimophila sparrows and Arremonops, most of which are primarily Neotropical in distribution. Geographical variation often minimal, and many subspecies poorly differentiated.
The following 12 subspecies are recognised:
perpallidus (Coues, 1872) - Breeds in south-western Canada (south-eastern British Columbia east to western Ontario) and in USA discontinuously south to western California and east to Minnesota, western Oklahoma and central Texas, also extreme north-western Mexico (northern Baja California). Non-breeding southern USA (central California, southern Arizona, central Oklahoma and Gulf Coast) south through Mexico and Guatemala to El Salvador.
pratensis (Vieillot, 1818) - Breeds east of Great Plains from Wisconsin east through Michigan to south-eastern Canada (south-eastern Ontario, southern Quebec and southern New Brunswick), south to eastern Oklahoma, north-eastern Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina and south-eastern Virginia. Non-breeding from southern limits of breeding range south to Bahamas, Cuba, eastern and southern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.
ammolegus Oberholser, 1942 - Breeds in southern Arizona and adjacent north-western Mexico (northern Sonora). Non-breeding also in western Mexico (south to Oaxaca) and Guatemala.
floridanus (Mearns, 1902) - Central Florida (Kissimee Prairie).
bimaculatus Swainson, 1827 - Central and southern Mexico (at least Zacatecas, México, southern Veracruz, possibly also Oaxaca), Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
cracens (Bangs & Peck, 1908) - Northern and eastern Guatemala (Petén and Izabál), Belize, eastern Honduras and north-eastern Nicaragua.
beatriceae Olson, 1980 - Central Panama (Coclé Province).
savannarum (Gmelin, 1789) - Jamaica.
intricatus Hartert, 1907 - Hispaniola.
borinquensis Peters, JL, 1917 - Puerto Rico.
caribaeus (Hartert, 1902) - Netherlands Antilles (Curaí§ao and Bonaire).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet