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Historic Status

Most nineteenth-century accounts of the birds of Massachusetts quickly gloss over the Lincoln’s Sparrow, or Lincoln’s Finch, often noting its rarity. “What has a bird, as inconspicuous as Lincoln’s Sparrow, done, that it must hide itself so assiduously from human eyes?” asked Edward Howe Forbush (Forbush 1929). Although identified by Audubon a century earlier in Labrador, it did not make the earliest Massachusetts lists, perhaps because of its propensity to skulk. It maintained its near invisibility through the first half of the twentieth century, remaining a marginal migrant and a rare sighting for lucky birders here or there.

Atlas 1 Distribution

Lincoln’s Sparrow evaded Confirmation – or even detection – throughout the period of Atlas 1. That the species was known to breed in nearby Vermont and New York, and had furthermore been detected in Massachusetts during previous breeding seasons, was insufficient evidence to add the bird definitively to the list of breeding species in the Bay State. The discovery of a Lincoln’s Sparrow nest in Florida, Massachusetts, in 1981 marked the first and, to date, the only Confirmed record of this species breeding in the Commonwealth, although the species apparently did not fully embrace the concept of summering in Florida.

Atlas 2 Distribution and Change

In Atlas 2 Lincoln’s Sparrows were found in 3 blocks during the species' Safe Dates, one each in the Lower Worcester Plateau, the Berkshire Transition Zone, and the Berkshire Highlands. They were only coded as Possible in all 3 blocks, meaning that they were only seen once in Safe Dates, and in breeding habitat.

Atlas 1 Map

Atlas 2 Map

Atlas Change Map