White-crowned Sparrow

Zonotrichia leucophrysOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Sparrows (Emberizidae)

General

White-crowned Sparrow: Medium-sized sparrow with brown-streaked upperparts, small white throat patch, and plain gray underparts. White crown has distinct black lines. Wings are brown with two pale bars. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has buff and brown head stripes.

Range and Habitat

White-crowned Sparrow: Breeds from Alaska and Manitoba east to Labrador and Newfoundland, and south into the western mountains to northern New Mexico and central California. Spends winters north to southern Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, and Maryland. Preferred nesting habitats include dense brush, especially near open grasslands. During winter, occurs in open woods and gardens.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"poor-wet-wetter-chee-zee", "pink", "tseek"

Interesting Facts

The White-crowned Sparrow is one of the best-studied songbirds in North America. Much of our knowledge of bird song and development is based on studies of this species.

Four of the five subspecies are migratory. The sedentary race lives in a very narrow band along the California coast.

Because males learn the songs they grew up with and do not travel far from where they were raised, song dialects frequently form. Males on the edge of two dialects may be bilingual and able to sing both dialects.

A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow: Medium-sized sparrow with brown-streaked upperparts, small white throat patch, and plain gray underparts. The white crown has distinct black lines. Wings are brown with two pale bars. Short flights, alternates rapid wing beats with brief periods of the wings pulled to sides.

● Song: "poor-wet-wetter-chee-zee", "pink", "tseek"

● Foraging & Feeding: White-crowned Sparrow: Diet includes seeds, buds, grass, fruits, and insects. Forages on the ground by scratching or gleans food from vegetation.

● Breeding & nesting: White-crowned Sparrow: Two to six light blue or green eggs marked with red brown are laid in a bulky cup of bark strips, grass, and twigs, lined with grass and hair, and built on a clump of grass or moss, or in a bush or low tree up to 30 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 11 to 14 days and is carried out by the female; raises up to 4 broods per year in the south.

● Similar species: White-crowned Sparrow: White-throated Sparrow has more rufous upperparts, a mostly dark bill, and well-defined white throat patch. Harris's Sparrow winter adult and juvenile are slightly larger, have pink bill, and buff face.

Flight Pattern

Short flights wih rapid wing beats., Alternates several rapid wing beats with wings drawn to sides.

● Range & Habitat: White-crowned Sparrow: Breeds from Alaska and Manitoba east to Labrador and Newfoundland, and south into the western mountains to northern New Mexico and central California. Spends winters north to southern Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, and Maryland. Preferred nesting habitats include dense brush, especially near open grasslands. During winter, occurs in open woods and gardens.

^BreedingMonogamous

^PopulationCommon to fairly common

^MigrationNorthern birds migrate

^Weight1 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America