It has a buffy yellow-orange face with grey cheeks, and a dark brown crown with a white central stripe.

[4][5] LeConte's sparrow is a member of the order Passerifomes, which are the perching birds, sometimes less accurately referred to as the songbirds.

It is from the family Passerellidae, which is characterized by species of small birds with bills adapted to seed eating.

This species falls within the genus Ammospiza clade which includes A. maritimus, A. nelsoni, and A. caudacutus,[6] which are the ground-loving sparrows that prefer staying in tall, thick grasses to perching on trees.

[citation needed] LeConte's sparrow breeds in select areas of Canada, such as northeastern British Columbia, across Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba as well as central Ontario and into Quebec; and as far south as northern Michigan, Montana and Minnesota.

[8] LeConte's sparrow prefers moist open grassy areas with sufficient vegetation cover to provide shelter.

Known habitat use includes meadows, fields, crop stubble, shallow marshy edges, prairie, and occasionally fens and lake-shores within the boreal forest.

[8] Studies have shown that vegetation seems to have a greater impact on the abundance of this bird than other factors like climate or patch size.

[9] Winter et al. (2005) says that it can be found at highest densities in areas with a "moderate amounts of bare ground".

[2] Their diet in the summer is mostly insects such as weevils, leafhoppers, leaf beetles, stinkbugs, caterpillars, moths and spiders.