The Sagebrush Sparrow is a winter visitor and migrant in Arizona, most often seen in desert valleys with extensive sagebrush or saltbush scrub. It breeds farther north and west in the Great Basin, but from late fall through early spring it can be found across suitable desert habitats in central and southern Arizona, where it forages close to the ground for seeds and insects. The closely related Bell’s Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli) occurs mainly along the Pacific slope and is extremely rare in Arizona, with only a few scattered records. Careful observation is required to distinguish the two, but in Arizona birders are far more likely to encounter the Sagebrush Sparrow.
