Sparrow Indentification in Sonoma County, California

February 12, 2007 on 12:26 am | In Daily Local Birder |

How to tell our common White-crowned Sparrows and Golden Crowned Sparrows apart

Greetings!
To the right, you will see that trusty, abundant, Sonoma County bird: the adult, White-crowned Sparrow. His presence is almost a given beneath any hedge in your neighborhood. He is the most common sparrow in our neck of the woods, and his bold black-and-white striped head make identification a snap for even beginning birders. Birds out here along the Pacific have the lovely yellow bill, though their relations in other parts of the U.S. have a pink one. The White-crowned Sparrow is a great friend of mine and his three note song is one of my favorites. So, if you see a bird with the distinct markings shown in my sketch, you can feel pretty confident that you are looking at the grown-up White-crowned Sparrow.

Certainty of this kind tends to be a rarity in the sparrow kingdom, however, and I have spent several winters puzzling over a backyard bird conundrum caused by the extraordinary similarity between two members of the mixed flock of small brown birds that hop around beneath my feeders. Both of these two mystery birds have a yellowish head stripe, and I would look out my window saying, “that’s the narrow head stripe one…and there’s the broad head stripe one.” They looked almost exactly alike, to my eyes, apart from that difference in head marking width, and the constant presence of the more obvious adult White-crowned made me feel pretty certain that some of the birds were his family members. Additionally, I had a pretty good feeling that some of the birds were Golden-crowned Sparrows. I just couldn’t say which was which.

Tonight, I’m writing this post to announce that I’ve figured it out! I know how to tell the two apart, and I’ve discovered why this has been confusing me all this time. I want to share this information with you so that you, too, can identify the sparrows in your own backyard.

The sparrow puzzle solved
As I’ve said, the White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, is a year-round Bay Area bird. The Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla, is only with us in the winter months. Both birds appear in abundance, and often in mixed winter flocks. When you take a gander, below, at my sketch of the two birds, I hope you will sympathize with my identification dilemma:

Here’s what going on with this picture. The birds shown are the 1st winter birds of both species. Because the Golden-crowned Sparrow is only here from August-March, chances are, we are unlikely to see him in his much more obvious breeding plumage. That would make things too easy! So, instead, what we are seeing is the 1st winter plumage of both sparrows, and they are, indeed, remarkably alike.

How to tell them apart? Look at my sketch above. As you can see, the White-crowned does have a narrower yellowish stripe on top of his head than the Golden-crowned. However, this isn’t a terribly good field mark to pass on to another birder. Rather, look at the bills! The White-crowned youngster has a yellow bill, and the Golden-crowned youngster has a grey bill. That’s important field mark #1.

Tip #2 for identifying these sparrows is shown in my sketch above. The White-crowned Sparrow has a dark eye stripe, right across his face. The Golden-crowned Sparrow does not.

So, to repeat that. Yellow bill + eye stripe = White-crowned Sparrow. Grey bill + no eye stripe = Golden-crowned Sparrow.

Because I’m only using this post for identification tips to help you to be able to name two of our most common and abundant local sparrows, I won’t go into detail about the lives of each. But, I did think it might be useful to bring up something new birders often wonder. How does one remember all of these field marks? How can you ever feel confident out in the field that you’re looking at a Winter Wren, not a Bewick’s Wren, or a Red-tailed Hawk instead of a Red-shouldered Hawk. The fact is, getting to observe a bird regularly eventually just lets you know who it is you’re looking at. There’s really no question. However, when you’re just getting acquainted with a new bird, you might find the following tip helpful.

Making up a song can help you memorize birding field marks!
It may be due to my history of working in early childhood education, but I see no reason why adults can’t benefit from the indisputable fact that words set to music are easier for most people to memorize than just plain words. My own skill at this is so honed that it has lead to near-insanity at times, realizing that I know all of the words to a song I hate but can’t get out of my mind! Why not put this phenomenon to good use by inventing little song snippets that feature a distinctive field mark of a bird you are trying to learn to be confident about? Here is my example of my Song about the Golden-crowned Sparrow:

Sing that 30 times and you’ll never forget that the Golden-crowned has a grey bill, I guarantee it! You could use the same tune with the words “White-crown, eye stripe, sparrow” for the White-crowned Sparrow. And, if you feel diffident about doing this, why not teach it to a little one? What is it about 4-year-olds that gives us the most wonderful excuse to sing silly songs, run around the yard, and meet the world with the wonder it truly deserves?

So, there you have it. Now is the time to really get familar with the sparrows in your garden. Sonoma County is home to many, many more, but perhaps none are such dependable stand-bys as these two friendly birds.