White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys

White-crowned SparrowI went out with Jeff again Sunday to look at the Le Conte's Sparrows and see what else we could find. We didn't find anything spectactular but in the Washington St parking lot of Rollins Savanna were a good number of White-crowned Sparrows - mostly these first-winter birds like this one.

The most common call from these birds at this time of year is a 'pink' - fairly non-descript. However every so often you'll hear a feeble version of their regular call. I've read this is the first-year male birds practising their call...makes sense to me. The first-year birds have a brown/buff crown where the adults would have a black/white crown (hence the name!). The younger birds are supposed to have black streaking on the breast although to be honest until looking this bird up, I didn't realize there was a big difference.

White-crowned SparrowLike most other sparrows in our area, the White-crowned is migratory, breeding up in Canada. Its winter range ends approximately at the Illinois/Wisconsin border. I've certainly had white-crowned's visiting my feeders during much of winter.