Conservation
The Rufous-crowned Sparrow is treated as a species of Least Concern, or not threatened with extinction, by BirdLife International due to its large geographical range of about 463,323 square miles (1,200,000 km2), estimated population of 2.4 million individuals, and lack of a 30% population decline over the last ten years. In years without sufficient rains, many birds fail to breed and those that do produce fewer offspring. Some of the local populations of this bird are threatened and declining in number. The island subspecies and populations have declined in some cases: A. r. sanctorum of the Todos Santos Islands is believed to be extinct, and the populations on Santa Catalina Island and Baja California's Islas de San Martin have not been observed since the early 1900s. Populations of the species in southern California are also becoming more restricted in range because of urbanization and agricultural development in the region. Additionally, the sparrow is known to have been poisoned by the rodenticide warfarin, though more research is needed to determine the effects of pesticides on the Rufous-crowned Sparrow.
Read more about this topic: Rufous-crowned Sparrow
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