Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 5.9–6.3 in
15–16 cm - Wingspan
- 8.3–9.4 in
21–24 cm - Weight
- 0.9–1 oz
25–28 g
Relative Size
- Slightly larger than a Song Sparrow
Other Names
- Bruant à couronne blanche (French)
- Zacatero mixto (Spanish)
Cool Facts
- A young male White-crowned Sparrow learns the basics of the song it will sing as an adult during the first two or three months of its life. It does not learn directly from its father, but rather from the generalized song environment of its natal neighborhood.
- Because male White-crowned Sparrows 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 migrating White-crowned Sparrow was once tracked moving 300 miles in a single night. Alaskan White-crowned Sparrows migrate about 2,600 miles to winter in Southern California.
- Scientists interested in movement and energetics have discovered that White-crowned Sparrows can run on a treadmill at a pace of about one-third of a mile an hour without tiring out.
- White-crowned Sparrows will share their territories with Fox Sparrows, but chase Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos until they leave.
- Male White-crowned Sparrows do most of the singing, but sometimes females also sing. They usually do this while contesting breeding territories or a winter food source. Their songs are quieter and more variable than male’s songs.
- The oldest recorded White-crowned Sparrow was 13 years 4 months old.
Habitat
Scrub
White-crowned Sparrows breed in open or shrubby habitats, including tundra, high alpine meadows, and forest edges. Patches of bare ground and grasses are important characteristics. During winter and on migration these birds frequent thickets, weedy fields, agricultural fields, roadsides, and backyards.
Food
Insects
White-crowned Sparrows eat mainly seeds of weeds and grasses, plus considerable numbers of caterpillars, wasps, beetles, and other insects during the summer. They also eat grains such as oats, wheat, barley, and corn, and fruit including elderberries and blackberries.
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Clutch Size
- 3–7 eggs
- Number of Broods
- 1-3 broods
- Egg Length
- 0.7–0.9 in
1.9–2.4 cm - Egg Width
- 0.6–0.7 in
1.4–1.8 cm - Incubation Period
- 10–14 days
- Nestling Period
- 8–10 days
- Egg Description
- Greenish, greenish-blue, or bluish spotted with reddish brown.
- Condition at Hatching
- Born with only sparse down feathers, eyes closed, weighing about 0.1 ounce.
Nest Description
Females build nests out of twigs, coarse grasses, pine needles, moss, bark, and dead leaves. They line the nest cup with fine grasses and hairs. The finished product is about 5 inches across and 2 inches deep, and takes the female 2-9 days to complete.
Nest Placement
Ground
White-crowned Sparrow nests are typically fairly low, placed 1.5 to 10 feet high in shrubs, particularly for Pacific Coast birds. Across the arctic and subarctic portions of the species’ range, White-crowned Sparrows nest on the tundra and have little choice but to put their nests on the ground, hidden among mats of mosses, lichens, and ground-hugging shrubs.
© René Corado / WFVZ
© René Corado / WFVZ
Behavior
Ground Forager
White-crowned Sparrows hop across the ground and through low foliage in brushy habitats. You may see them “double-scratching,” a move they share with towhees involving a quick hop backwards to turn over leaves followed by a forward hop and pounce. When these birds arrive on their breeding grounds males and females quickly pair, then wait until snow has melted enough to begin nest building. At the end of summer the pairs break up and winter separately, but when both members of the pair return the next summer, about two-thirds of the pairs re-form. Young birds move very little for the first few days after they leave the nest, and don’t typically learn to fly until a week or so later. Siblings can stay with each other for more than two months after fledging.
Conservation
Least Concern
White-crowned Sparrows are numerous and widespread. Breeding Bird Surveys suggest their numbers may be declining in parts of Utah, Colorado, and California, but increasing in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and Newfoundland.
Credits
- Chilton, G., M. C. Baker, C. D. Barrentine and M. A. Cunningham. 1995. White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online
- Dunne, P. 2006. Pete Dunne’s essential field guide companion. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
- Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder’s handbook. Simon & Schuster Inc., New York.
- Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Longevity Records
Migration
Resident or medium-distance migrant. White-crowned Sparrows that breed in Alaska and arctic Canada spend the winter over much of the continental U.S. and Mexico. Birds along the Pacific Coast and in parts of the interior West don’t migrate.
Backyard Tips
White-crowned Sparrows come to feeders for sunflower and other kinds of seeds – though they may be more likely to stay on the ground eating seeds dropped by other birds. Making a brush pile in your yard is another good way to encourage this species to spend more time in your yard.
Find This Bird
The White-crowned Sparrow is a winter bird across much of the U.S (exceptions are the West Coast and mountains of the West). Start looking for these birds to arrive sometime in September, and they’ll be in fields, along roadsides, in low foliage at trail edges, or hopping around the margins of your yard until March or April.