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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.
The adult White-crowned Sparrow has brown-streaked upperparts, a small
white throat patch, and plain gray underparts. The white crown has distinct
black lines.
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WHITE-CROWNED
SPARROW
Zonotrichia leucophrys
PASSERIFORMES
Sparrows (Emberizidae)
Range
and Habitat
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.
SOUND: "poor-wet-wetter-chee-zee", "pink", "tseek"
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.
The White-crowned Sparrow is a medium-sized sparrow which is found in
North America. Preferred breeding habitats of the species include brushlands
found in northern Canada and the western United States.
Nests are built in low bushes or on the ground, camouflaged by low vegetation.
Northern populations will migrate in winter months to the southern United
States. They are rarely occurring in western Europe. Food is found on
the ground or gleaned from bushes. Flying insects may be caught mid-flight,
but diets consist mainly of seeds, vegetation and other insects.
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