Not much was known about the Seaside Sparrows vocal and visual displays before Post and Greenlaw did their study and published results in 1975. As pointed in this paper observing Seasides in their habitat is not an easy task. I can handle the observations – this requires a lot of time and patience for sparrows to accept a new addition to their territory, the observer, but after they start seeing you as no threat, everything becomes an easy task. Except the photography. Light inside vegetation is usually horrible for that purpose and not much can be done except the help of technology and the use of a very high ISO setting (I do not like flash photography for many reasons). Once you are accepted, Seasides are fearless – I had, several times, a male singing his song less then 2 feet away from my face! Not enough room even to squeeze the lens between he and I. Seasides will fight vigorously with each other, chase other small birds away (on one day a Least Sandpiper tried to visit their place – every time it was instantly chased away by one or more sparrows). For some reason Nelson’s, a winter companion, is usually tolerated, but on the other hand, even a slight aggression from Seasides led to immediately reaction of fleeing away of a smaller Nelson’s. On the opposite end any raptor flying above, or even a grackle – all Seasides instantly ‘dive’ inside the vegetation and stay there until the sky above is safe again. There is no place now to describe all Seaside’s visual displays. I had seen all known ones (performing outside the nesting season) and photographed most of them. Now, I just want to share some experience with one shown on the quiz photo although I added one more behavior unintentionally.

For a moment close your eyes and imagine that you are moving in time to the medieval period, filled with jousting tournaments when knights are busy with either fighting each other or are practicing their skills from childhood to get ready when time for confrontation will come.

One of the known Seaside’s visual displays (thus I never saw actual photos taken before) is so-called “carrying material” display (Post and Greenlaw). Males during the territorial disputes use it. Displaying male is holding a piece of material (reported: pieces of grass pulled from the vegetation or wrack debris, in one recorded case item was 10 cm long) in his beak and can carry it for several minutes while in the presence of his opponent. (Note: see also Post and Greenlaw for more information about Seaside and other sparrow species carrying material in front of their mates).

Presented photo is showing a juvenile Seaside getting ready to attack its opponent. Armed with a big feather (I did not find any references to use other bird feathers, or using a carrying material in aggressive chases, and the ‘weapon’ is longer than 10 cm – in fact I recorded several times ‘the lance’ much longer than 10 cm) it is watching the opponent getting ready for a pursuit. Some of the chases (see this photo: https://pbase.com/image/107163291) were to continue inside the vegetation when flying between grass stems, material held in the beak, right behind opponent’s back that was trying to flee. On many other occasions I observed juveniles using pieces of grass or twigs for this display: https://pbase.com/image/107163311. But some debris could be used as well. On one occasion a piece of a dead ghost crab shell was presented when displaying ( https://pbase.com/image/107163270). In my observations most ‘carrying material’ displays with larger items ended up with vigorous chases after the fleeing opponent. In no case did I see an ‘unarmed’ opponent trying to face the attacker, something that happened often when both opponents were ‘unarmed’ – but this will require more field observations to confirm.

Here, I have to note that all that were participating in the ‘jousting tournaments” the sparrows I observed at that time were juveniles. So, we have to take under consideration the play aspect. Avian play was documented in many papers. But, as adult males are using this display my observations show that the preparation for this display is developing at a juvenile age and is practiced before reaching maturity (no references found). A fact that I observed juveniles performing this display numerous times and on different dates suggests that this display is a normal part of the juveniles’ behavior.

I am not including all the photos illustrating this display, or any other displays that I have documented in photographs as I am still working on collected material and do not have it ready to publish yet. As said unintentionally the hint photo is also showing ‘erected posture’ - this display is so far only known to be used by captive birds (Post and Greenlaw) but I collected enough data from different situations to argue other possible meanings of this display when used by Seasides in their natural environment.

Just to add a humorous scene from the Seasides life, here is a moment when a juvenile Seaside met a ghost crab and could not make a decision as to what to do next. See selected frames inside the folder with all photos illustrating this thread. https://pbase.com/mbb/seaside_sparrows_mysterious__life

Hope you enjoyed watching a few moments from the Seaside’s life.

Mark

P.S. I am only trying to study natural history and behaviors of a few selected species. Seaside Sparrow happens to be one of them because it has such an interesting ‘life style’. Most of my observations are done on private lands – above photos were taken on one of them. Here I have a request. If you have a breeding population of Seaside Sparrows on your property located no farther then 100 miles away from Houston and are willing to give me a permit to visit, observe and photograph there, I will greatly appreciate your help.