It also occurs in washes with sandy bottoms and vegetated slopes, brushy irrigation ditches, and creeks bordered by broad-leaved trees, mesquite, grasses, and forbs.

During the breeding season, adult rufous-winged sparrows feed on a variety of insects, caught on the wing or gleaned off plant surfaces.

The nest is built low in small trees, bushes, or cactus, including hackberry, palo verde, cholla, and mesquite.

The rufous-winged sparrow in Pima County: This species was discovered by Charles Emil Bendire in 1872, near old Fort Lowell, Tucson, where it was common.

It inhabited the mesquite thickets, keeping closely hidden in the bunches of 'sacaton' grass, from which, when flushed, it flew into the branches above."