Adult has buffy-white underparts with crisp dusky-brown streaks, sandy-gray upperparts with two narrow white wing bars, long dark tail with white corners, yellow eye, gray face, diffuse pale supercilium, white throat, and relatively short, slender black bill. Immatures are a darker earthy brown above, more streaked on the head, and buffier and more heavily streaked below than adults.

Length: 22 (cm) Wingspan: 30 (cm)

Voice:

Burbling, grating, warbling, drawn-out phrases. Call is a single chuck note.

Habitat:

Sagebrush deserts.

Behavior:

Common to abundant in Great Basin sage expanses. Typically on the ground, along fencelines, or atop sage clumps. Males sing from exposed perches. Nest is a cup of twigs, lined with finer materials, placed in low, dense bush. In flight, often arcs and banks like a shearwater or a gadfly petrel.

Feeding:

Feeds mostly on ground; eats insects and occasional fruit.