season, it gleans its food from grasses and low shrubs. However, normally the species obtains its food by either pecking or less frequently scratching at leaf litter. This bird tends to forage in a small family group and in a limited area. It is unknown whether this species obtains all of the water it needs from its food or if it must also drink; however, it has been observed both drinking and bathing in pools of water after rain storms. Reproduction The rufous-crowned sparrow breeds in sparsely vegetated scrubland. Males attract a mate by singing from regular positions at the edge of their territories throughout the breeding season. These birds are monogamous, taking only one mate at a time, and pairs often remain together for several years. If singing males come within contact of each other, they may initially raise their crowns and face the ground to display this feature; if that fails to make the other bird leave, they stiffen their body, droop their wings, raise their tails, and stick their head straight out. Males guard their territories year-round. While it is not known when precisely the breeding season starts, the earliest that a sparrow has been observed carrying nesting material was on March 2 in southern California. The female bird builds a bulky, thick-walled open-cup nest typically on the ground, though occasionally in a low bush up to above it, from dried grasses and rootlets, sometimes with strips of bark, small twigs, and weed stems. Nests are well hidden, as they are built near bushes or tall grasses or overhanging rock with concealing vegetation. Once a sparrow chooses a nesting site, it tends to return to the site for many years. It lays between two and five eggs at a time and typically only raises one brood a year, though some birds in California have been observed raising two or even three broods a year. In case of a nesting failure, replacement clutches may be laid. The eggs are an unmarked, pale bluish-white. Broods of the rufous-crowned sparrow have very occasionally been observed to be parasitized by the brown-headed cowbird. Incubation of the eggs lasts 11 to 13 days and is performed solely by the female. The hatchlings are naked and quills do not begin to show until the third day. Only females brood the nestlings, though both parents may bring whole insects to their young. When a