Requires dry uplands with many grasses and forbs, and some trees and shrubs. In the piedmont, breeds in tall grassy fields with saplings scattered throughout (Potter et al. 1980); in the coastal plain, breeds in mostly open pine forests with thick grass; reports of the amount of shrubby understory vary (Fussell 1994, Potter et al. 1980, Rising and Beadle 1996). Can also occur in oak-palmetto scrub (Rising and Beadle 1996).

NATURE SERVE GLOBAL HABITAT COMMENTS:

Habitat specialist. Historically, found in mature to old growth southern pine woodland subject to frequent growing-season fires; a fugitive species, breeding wherever fires created suitable conditions. Requires well-developed grass and herb layer with limited shrub and hardwood midstory components. Ideal habitat was originally the extensive longleaf pine woodlands of the south. Able to colonize recent clearcuts and early seral stages of old field succession but such habitat remains suitable only for a short time. Habitats include dry open pine (southern states) or oak woods (e.g., western portion of range) with an undercover of grasses and shrubs, hillsides with patchy brushy areas, overgrown fields with thickets and brambles, grassy orchards, and large clear-cuts (usually at least 20 ha in Virginia). In the southeastern U.S., Coastal Plain breeding habitat usually is open pine woods with thick cover of grasses or saw palmetto; in the Piedmont, mainly in overgrown fields with scattered saplings, occasionally in open woods with thick grass cover (Hamel 1992). Very occasionally breeds along the edges of wheat or corn fields (Blincoe 1921, Graber and Graber 1963, Mengel 1965).

In South Carolina, higher densities were recorded in mature (more than 80 years old) pine stands than in young stands (Dunning and Watts 1990).

In northwestern Florida, inhabited a longleaf pine stand during the first three years after annual spring fires were discontinued; canopy cover was 43% and ground cover was 85%. Five years after the burns stopped canopy cover increased to 91%, ground cover decreased to 21%, and breeding no longer occurred (Engstrom et al. 1984).

In Missouri, breeding areas include red-cedar groves of limestone glades where woody plants constitute less than 33% of the plant cover (Probasco 1978), early succession shrub and grass old fields, shrub and grass savanna, oak-hickory stands cut within the past three years, and stands of shortleaf pines with diameters of less than 7.6 cm (Evans and Kirkman 1981, Hardin et al. 1982). Within 13 territories in limestone glades, shrubs had an average cover of 4.1% and tree cover averaged 2.3% (Hardin et al. 1982). See also Hardin and Probasco (1983).

In the southern states, singing perches generally are on the dead lower branches or stubs of living pine trees (LeGrand and Schneider 1992).

Winters mainly in habitats with dense grassy cover, mostly under open pine woods, also in grassy fields, such as broomsedge (Hamel 1992), scrub oak, and along fence rows; has been recorded in riparian habitats and sometimes along the saltwater shores of coastal woodlands (Burleigh 1958, Bent 1968, Sprunt and Chamberlain 1970, LeGrand and Schneider 1992).

Nests on the ground in dense cover, against/under grass tuft or under low shrub (Harrison 1978), in grassy opening, field, or area with scattered trees. Open, domed nests are built by the female and consist of coarse dry grasses and weed stems lined with finer materials (Blincoe 1921, Ganier 1921, Brooks 1938). Six nests in Alabama were 18-20 cm high and 11.4 cm wide, with a smaller inner cavity (Weston, in Bent 1968).

NATURE SERVE STATE HABITAT COMMENTS: