6.9 territories for the same amount of coastal scrubland. One pair tends to be supported by a territory, although birds without a mate have been seen sharing a territory with a mated pair. This sparrow is awkward in flight and primarily uses running and hopping to move. The rufous-crowned sparrow will at times forage in pairs during the breeding season, and in family-sized flocks in late summer and early autumn. During the winter they can occasionally be found in loose mixed-species foraging flocks. Predators of adult sparrows include house cats and small raptors like Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks, American kestrels, and white-tailed kites. The nests may be raided by a range of species including mammals and reptiles such as snakes, though nest predation has not yet been directly observed, and nesting sparrows have been observed using three kinds of displays to distract potential predators; the rodent run, the broken wing, and the tumbling off the bush. Birds adopt a rodent run display to distract predators. The head, neck and tail are lowered, wings held out, and feathers fluffed as the bird runs rapidly and voices a continuous alarm call. In the broken wing display, the sparrow imitates having a broken wing by dropping one to the ground and hopping away from the nest with one wing dragging, leading the predator away until the bird ceases the act and escapes the predator. The adult rufous-crowned sparrow distracts a nest predator by falling from the top of a bush to attract the predator to itself in the tumbling off the bush display. The longest lifespan recorded for a rufous-crowned sparrow is three years, two months. Two species of tick, Amblyomma americanum and Ixodes pacificus, are known to parasitize the sparrow. Diet This sparrow feeds primarily on small grass and forb seeds, fresh grass stems, and tender plant shoots during autumn and winter. During these seasons, insects such as ants, grasshoppers, ground beetles, and scale insects as well as spiders make up a small part of its diet. In the spring and summer, the bird's diet includes a greater quantity and variety of insects. The rufous-crowned sparrow forages slowly on or near the ground by walking or hopping under shrubs or dense grasses. Though it occasionally forages in weedy areas, it is almost never observed foraging in the open. It has occasionally been observed feeding in branches and low shrubs. During the breeding