I've spent a lot of time in recent years looking and listening for
Bachman's Sparrrows in Lewis, Hickman, and Perry County. This
includes extensive clearcuts in Hickman just south of the spot where
you found the birds. These searches have yielded only two singing
males, one of which was apparently a transient because followup
checks by me and the Stoll brothers yielded no more observations. It
seems that the vast majority of seemingly good Bachman's habitat in
this region is unoccupied.
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2016 20:02:26 -0400
From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "tnbarredowl" for
Subject: [TN-Bird] Bachman's Sparrows, Hickman County
I found a large clear-cut this afternoon in south Hickman County that looked like great Bachman's Sparrow habitat. Since it was 3:00, 90+ degrees and sun blistering down, I knew it would be practically futile to try to locate some birds here. I parked at one of the former loading areas and walked a short way toward some young pines and dead hardwood snags (formerly 10-15 year old trees). I flushed a sparrow that immediately flew into one of the dead hardwoods. I great look through binoculars made Bachman's Sparrow identification easy. I walked slowly toward this bird and flushed a second bird. It flew toward the first, but remained lower in the vegetation. I got a quick look at another adult Bachman's before it dropped back into cover. Based on their behavior, I would guess a pair (male likely the first bird, using a higher perch). Neither bird sang. I returned to my vehicle and drove a few hundred feet further before flushing another sparrow from the roadside. It flew int
o a thicket of young hardwoods. Almost immediately, two other birds flew from the ground nearby and joined the first bird. I got a quick look with binoculars and was able to enjoy watching two juveniles begging an adult for food. Likely a female with young, though males do feed recently fledged young, especially if the territory's female is brooding the next batch of eggs. I never heard any Bachman's Sparrow sing, but given time of day and weather conditions, I don't blame them. Wish I had time to return early one morning and walk some of the internal logging roads. This site would be big enough for 10+ territories!
Here's a link to google map that shows the location.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/35.7063618,-87.5849114// @35.7025633,-87.5987301,5216m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
From the looks of the older aerial imagery of Google, and the looks of the pine stands around this location, I would bet Hickman County has had Bachman's Sparrows regularly for 20+ years.
Damien Simbeck
Killen, AL
