The Howland Picture Pages: White-crowned Sparrow

Page by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/01/28 04:51:19 $ (UTC)

The White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) is a new world sparrow that is common through-out much of North America. In our area (southern Alberta), this is mainly a summer bird. It likes bushy areas and is distinctive when perching, due to its song and the bold white crown stripe and supercilium (eyebrow). It is eminently photographable while perching.

First winter White-crowned Sparrows look similar to the American Tree Sparrow -- check for the all-yellow or -pinkish (as opposed to bicolored) bill on the White-crowned, and its brown (as opposed to rufous) head stripes. Distinguish the bird also from the White-throated Sparrow, often seen nearby, by the white throat and yellow lores on the latter.

Resources where you can find out more:

• White-crowned Sparrow profile at weaselhead.org
• White-crowned Sparrow profile at CLO including sound sample

Don't talk to me about left turns!

Here is a first winter White-crowed Sparrow we saw while ambling around a rest stop near Albuquerque, New Mexico late on the afternoon of November 11, 2002. I got into the habit of taking my camera along at each rest stop break during our driving tour around New Mexico, just on the off chance of getting close enough to a critter to get a reasonable photo. Sparrows are pretty small to photograph without a lot of lens, but at areas with a consistent human presence (like rest stops) it is often possible to get a little closer than normal -- even if the only wildlife likely to be present are "garden variety" species. EXIF 2.2 photo info: 320 x 262 true color Exposure time: 1/306.50 F-stop: 5.3 ISO speed: 400 Focal length: 71.2000 (plus 1.5X teleconverter) Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Center Weighted Exposure program: Normal Gain control: Low gain up Contrast: Normal Saturation: Normal Sharpness: Normal Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E5700

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