Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Bachman's Sparrow (Aimophila aestivalis)

Abundance: Occasional (only 1 recent record); abundance has declined considerably from the 1940s and 1950s when still fairly common to 1960s and early 1970s when uncommon to late 1970s and 1980s when very uncommon to present status during 1990s and 2000s.

Status: Summer Resident (but no evidence of breeding except for presence of singing males or presumptive pairs); designated as an endangered breeding species by the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission (2004); designated as endangered by the Tennessee Division of Natural Heritage (2004); photograph (see link below).

Regional High Count: 9 (14-20 June 1937; Pickett State Park and Forest, Pickett County, Tennessee; Albert F. Ganier et al.; Ganier 1937), not a one-day count.

Information on Records: 

20  March 1889 (number unspecified) Eubank, Pulaski County, Kentucky (John B. Lewis; Cooke 1914;  Monroe and Mengel 1943 [cite 26 March]; Mengel 1965).

26 September 1889 (number unspecified) Eubank, Pulaski County, Kentucky (Cooke 1914; Mengel 1965).

14-20 June 1937 (9) Pickett State Park and Forest, Pickett County, Tennessee (Albert F. Ganier et al.; Ganier 1937).

15-23 June 1940 (several pairs) Fall Creek Falls State Park, Van Buren County, Tennessee (Albert F. Ganier et al.; Ganier and Clebsch 1940).

3 May 1946 (number unspecified) Russell County, Kentucky (Gordon Wilson; Wilson 1946).

5 May 1946 (number unpspecified) Science Hill, Pulaski County, Kentucky (Dan Wesley; Wilson 1946).

8-9 May 1954 (2) Standing Stone State Park, Overton County, Tennessee (TOS members; Anonymous 1954; Nicholson 1976).

5-6 May 1962 (1) Crossville, Cumberland County, Tennessee (TOS members; Anonymous 1962a; Nicholson 1976).

3 May 1965 (2) Cumberland County, Tennessee (Lee R. Herndon et al.; Anonymous 1965a).

7-8 May 1966 (4) Cumberland County, Tennessee (TOS members; Anonymous 1966a; Nicholson 1976 [cites total observed as 1]).

10 June 1971 (1 singing male) Near Westel, Cumberland County, Tennessee (Morris D. Williams; Nicholson 1976).

10 June-July 1974 (3--2 singing males, 1 female) Crab Orchard rest area, I-40, Cumberland County, Tennessee (Tony Koella; Williams 1974c; Nicholson 1976).

29 July 1974 (1 singing male) Fall Creeks Falls State Park, Bledsoe County, Tennessee (Tony Koella; Williams 1974d; Nicholson 1976).

Late spring and summer 1979 (1) Barnes Hollow, Putnam County, Tennessee (Richard W. Simmers, Jr.; Simmers 1980b; Stedman 1993), a Breeding Bird Census registration.

18-19 July 1981 (1) Brigadoon Farm, Barren County, Kentucky (Russell Starr; Stamm 1981d).

1/15 May 2004 (1 singing male) Eastland Rd., White County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman, Douglas A. Downs/Stephen J. Stedman, Douglas A. Downs, Winston A. Walden, Arlene M. Morton, Connie S. Neeley, Wendell Neeley, C. Gay Hodges, Roseanna M. Denton photo; Casteel 2004c; Hoff 2004d; Stedman and Downs 2005), photo (15 May 2004, Roseanna M. Denton); a Spring Bird Count record (first date).

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Early Spring: 20 March 1889 (number unspecified; Pulaski County, Kentucky; John B. Lewis; Cooke 1914; Monroe and Mengel 1943 [incorrectly cite date as 26 March]; Mengel 1965).

    Late Fall: 26 September 1889 (number unspecified; Pulaski County, Kentucky; Cooke 1914; Mengel 1965).

    Note: These extreme dates are no longer applicable.

Note: Cooke (1914) provided an average spring arrival date of 6 April, based on seven years (not specified) of data obtained at Eubank, Pulaski County, Kentucky, during the late 19th Century.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Breeding: Probable; no confirmations, a somewhat surprising circumstance, given the abundance of the species in many counties of the Region from the 1880s (and presumably earlier) through the 1950s.

Habitat: Quite transitory and specialized.  Although not relevant to all breeding habitat selected by Bachman's Sparrows in the Region, the following description of territories of Bachman's Sparrows in Ohio is worth repeating, as Mengel believed it to be pertinent to many sites with breeding Bachman's in Kentucky (Mengel 1965: 492 [quoting Hicks as cited in a work by Brooks]):

            The choicest locations are about fifty to one hundred yards down from the ridge tops in old deserted fields.
         A typical territory is a circle 150 feet each way from an eroded gully which has healed and is now well covered
        with miscellaneous trees, shrubs, and particularly blackberry brambles.  The territory is more attractive after
        about five per cent of the open grass lands adjacent to the gullies [is] dotted with blackberry briars.  Usually
        the center of the territory is close to the upper end of the gully, and the abundant plants are the dry soil
        goldenrods and asters, wild oat grass (Danthonia spicata), and various other grasses, composites, and
        miscellaneous weeds typical of dry, eroded slopes.

In the Tennessee portion of the Region, Bachman's Sparrow breeding habitat often takes the form of regenerating clear-cuts, as was the case with the May 2004 sighting on Eastland Rd. in White County, Tennessee, and as was probably true of some of the sightings in Cumberland County, Tennessee, during the 1970s.

Remarks: Rhoads (1895) registered this sparrow in Fentress, Morgan, and Scott counties, Tennessee, during summer 1895.  Wilson (1942) described it as "fairly common" in Barren County, Kentucky, in the decades prior to the publication of his work.

    A purported population increase on the Cumberland Plateau during the 1970s (Nicholson 1976) may have been no more than "blip" caused by fortuitous sightings of this sparrow in Cumberland County and a few adjacent counties.  Insufficient evidence exists to say more than that this sparrow may have undergone a very brief and probably not very significant increase in numbers on the plateau as a result of briefly increased habitat during that period.  The species surely underwent a steep decrease in population number on the plateau in the two decades prior to that period, and it has undergone a continuing decrease in population number there ever since that time.

Counties with Historical (boldfaced red) and Recent Observations (boldfaced green):

To see a map (Figure 1) displaying the data in the table above, click on the boldfaced word in this sentence.

Literature Cited