The Texas population was solely known from a brushfield near Houston and disappeared after devegetation due to industrial development in the 1980s. It was considered a distinct subspecies ("P. h. houstonensis": Arnold, 1983) but is today considered to fall into the range of variation of the nominate subspecies (Browning, 1990). Likewise, the South Dakotan population formerly known as "P. h. occidentalis" has been synonymized with the nominate. The only remaining subspecies generally (but not universally) accepted are the eastern Henslow's sparrow and the western Henslow's sparrow, whose ranges are for the most part separated by the Appalachian Mountains.