A large warm-brown sparrow of dry scrub and yards in the Desert Southwest, it often searches through leaf litter on the ground.
It is warm brown overall, with rusty brown under the tail. It is fairly long-legged and long-tailed, and often stays low under shrubs or on the ground.
It eats seeds on the ground and uses a double-scratch hop to uncover food in leaf litter. It also takes seeds such as sorghum and millet.
The female builds a bulky nest of grass and plant stems, lining it with fine grass or hair. The shaded nest rests against a shrub or tree trunk, supported by strong branches.
Clutches contain two to six eggs. The eggs are bluish white to pearl grey, marked with brown, black or purple spots.
Besides seeds, it eats berries, grasshoppers and other insects, millipedes, snails and spiders.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.