Where extremely high tides had piled dried meadow grass in layers, I often flushed these birds by draging a rope across the salt marshes. The nests were cleverly hidden underneath the windrows and brooding birds utilized runways to escape before an intruder came within twenty yards.
The rope ruse flushed them directly from the nest and rendered discovery easy.
They are fond of insect food and eat more "bugs" than most Sparrows, even pursuing them expertly on the wing in true Flycatcher fashion.
They prefer saltwater marshes but a few follow up brackish meadows to freshwater fields.
Marshes of Atlantic coast from Massachusetts south in Winter to Florida.