Dickcissel, Spiza americana

Dickcissel, Spiza americana, Female. Photograph taken within the Reserva Monte Mojino, Alamos, Sonora, November 2019. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Dickcissel, Spiza americana, Male. Sepember 2017. Contributor and location unknown.

The Dickcissel, Spiza americana, is a member of the Cardinalidae Family of Cardinals and Allies, which has forty-nine members placed in fourteen genera, and the sole global species of the Spiza Genus. They are known in Mexico as arrocero.

The Dickcissel is sparrow-shaped and small in stature. They are both sexually dimorphic and sexually dichromatic with the males being about 20% larger than the females and have a streaked grayish head, a yellowish supercilium, white chin, thin lateral throat stripes, a black throat patch, a bright yellow breast, a chestnut shoulder, a brown streaked back, a light-gray belly and blackish wings and tail. The females are similar to the males but have duller facial and head patterns, a fainter lateral throat stripe and do not have a black throat patch. Their pale pinkish brown bill is tipped in slate black in winter and pale brown with gray to bluish gray tinge during breeding season, their iris is dark brown, and their legs and feet are a pale pinkish buff in younger birds and brown in older birds.

The Dickcissel are found in large, open fields and wetlands within seasonally flooded grasslands, savannas and crop lands that have abundant seeds at elevations up to 500 m (1,640 feet). They are long distance migrants that summer in the United States and the majority winter in South America and can be found in huge flocks and roosts. They are known to make erratic semi-nomadic movements in pursuit of food outside their home range which results in dramatic year-to-year changes in distribution and abundance. They have demonstrated a strong ability to adapt to major habitat changes within both their breeding and non-breeding ranges including large areas of prairie grasslands that have been replaced by agricultural development. Their diets consist of seeds including rice, sorghum, and other grasses. They have life spans of up to five years. The Dickcissel has been poorly studied and very little has been documented about their biology and behavioral patterns.

In Mexico the Dickcissel is found within all coastal regions making stopovers on route to wintering grounds in South America. A few birds remain in southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and eastern Campeche for the winter. On the Pacific Slope wintering birds are found within the coastal region from southern Sinaloa to Guatemala.

From a conservation perspective the Dickcissel is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations. However, in some regions their populations are in radical decline. Their long-term survival is threatened by habitat destruction caused by human development. They are considered to be a pest of agricultural crops throughout their wintering range and are targets of eradication programs by farmers. In some regions they are hunted for use as a human food.