Habitat
Open grassy fields and sparsely vegetated uplands (Armstrong 1995). In Alaska, habitat is damp, upland tundra heath, and swale of tall grass and sedge amidst tall willows (Murie 1946). Restricted primarily to extensive, open tracts of short grassland habitat. Nest (in the north) peatlands and scattered woodlands near timberline (Forbush 1925, Higgins et al. 1969, AOU 1983, Osborne and Peterson 1984, Godfrey 1986). Nesting is also known to occur in dry patches of wet meadows (Stewart 1975, Herman et al. 1984) and in blueberry (Vacccinium spp.) barrens (J. Albright, pers. comm.). In northern Yukon, nesting habitat includes tussock tundra, sedge tussock meadows with adjacent spruce, wet willow- horsetail slopes, spruce edge, cotton-grass tussock tundra with patches of dwarf birch and willow, wetlands, hillsides, and open spruce (Alexander et al. 2003).
References
Alexander, S. A., F. I. Doyle, C. D. Ecker, H. Grünberg, N. L. Hughes, M. Jensen, I. Johnson, D. H. Mossop, W. A. Nixon, and P. H. Sinclair. 2003. Birds of the Yukon Territory (P. H. Sinclair, W. A. Nixon, C. D. Eckert, and N. L. Hughes, eds.). UBC Press, Vancouver, B.C.
AOU. 1983. Check-list of North American birds. 6th ed.American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington D. C.
Armstrong, R. H. 1995. Guide to the birds of Alaska, 4th ed. Alaska Northwest Books, Anchorage, AK. 322 pp.
Forbush, E. H. 1925. Birds of Massachusetts and other New England states. Part 1: Water birds, marsh birds and shore birds. Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, Boston, Massachusetts. 486 pp.
Godfrey, W. E. 1986. The Birds of Canada. Revised edition. National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa, Canada. 595 pp.
