Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)
“These are large, long-tailed sparrows with small heads and short but stout, seed-eating bills. Golden-crowned Sparrows feed on seeds and insects on the ground and in low vegetation. They whistle their slow, mournful-sounding songs from high perches and nest in dense, low vegetation. In migration and winter, they gather in loose flocks and mix with other sparrows, especially White-crowned Sparrows. Golden-crowned Sparrows are most visible during migration and winter, when they frequent forest edge, shrubs, chaparral, and backyards of the West Coast. They nest much farther north, in low, shrubby areas of tundra or at the edges of boreal forests….. When day length increases in the spring, the Golden-crowned Sparrow detects the change through photoreceptors (light-sensitive cells). Its body responds by putting on fat and getting an urge to migrate.”
Status : Least Concern
Source : Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Brown Acres – Jackson County – Oregon - USA
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)
“These are large, long-tailed sparrows with small heads and short but stout, seed-eating bills. Golden-crowned Sparrows feed on seeds and insects on the ground and in low vegetation. They whistle their slow, mournful-sounding songs from high perches and nest in dense, low vegetation. In migration and winter, they gather in loose flocks and mix with other sparrows, especially White-crowned Sparrows. Golden-crowned Sparrows are most visible during migration and winter, when they frequent forest edge, shrubs, chaparral, and backyards of the West Coast. They nest much farther north, in low, shrubby areas of tundra or at the edges of boreal forests….. When day length increases in the spring, the Golden-crowned Sparrow detects the change through photoreceptors (light-sensitive cells). Its body responds by putting on fat and getting an urge to migrate.”
Status : Least Concern
Source : Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Brown Acres – Jackson County – Oregon - USA