seaside sparrow

[ see-sahyd spar-oh ]

noun

1. a species of sparrow, Ammospiza maritima, existing in two subspecies, one Cape Sable seaside sparrow having dark olive-drab plumage with a lighter breast and underbelly, and the other dusky seaside sparrow, or dusky sparrow having bold black and white markings on the breast and underbelly: the dusky seaside sparrow is almost extinct.

Example Sentences

“The Office of Endangered Species has gone the way of the dusky seaside sparrow and the Sampson’s pearly mussel,” the story read.

From Seattle Times

A seaside sparrow with mustard-colored smears on its face flew by.

From Washington Post

In a scorching Georgia marsh where she slogs through muck to study a seaside sparrow, she shifts heavy equipment to the side of her body that faces the roadway so suspicious White motorists “won’t think I’m doing something illegal and make trouble for me.”

From Washington Post

Perhaps it’s the gateway needed to save the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, another rare sparrow species in Florida teetering on the brink of vanishing, Blackford says.

From National Geographic

In the 1980s, something similar happened with a relative of the Florida grasshopper sparrow, a bird called the dusky seaside sparrow.

From National Geographic