White-crowned Sparrow
Zonotrichia leucophrys

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Emberizidae
Genus: Zonotrichia

Audio for Species

Call
Song
Call/Song

from Macaulay Library

Species Related Links

Additional White-crowned Sparrow Pictures

Description

Length: 5.9-6.3 in (15-16 cm) Weight: 0.9-1 oz (25-28 g) Wingspan: 8.3-9.4 in (21-24 cm)

It is a large sparrow, with a white crown that is broken into three parts by black and bordered by a black supercilium. The underparts, neck are a pale-gray and back and scapulars light brown-gray streaked with brown. Wings brownish with 2 white wing-bars and black markings. Tail dark brown. Rump and uppertail-coverts pale brownish. The bill is small and light pink or yellow. The juvinelle has brown markings on the head not black.

Habitat, Range, and Feeding

They like open fields with brushy edges. They enjoy the protection of brambles and shrubs or trees, but will nest on the ground in tall grasses.

Females build the nests out of twigs, coarse grasses, pine needles, moss, bark, and dead leaves. They line the nest cup with fine grasses and hairs. Incubation is 10 to 14 days, and fledging is in 8 to 10 days. The clutch size is 3 to 7 eggs, that are greenish, greenish-blue, or bluish speckled with reddish brown and heavier on the large end.

They eat mostly seeds from weeds, grasses, and grains from oats, wheat, barley and corn, and do consume large numbers of insects, like caterpillars, and beetles. Also fruits like blackberries.