Golden-crowned Sparrow

Zonotrichia atricapilla

Golden-crowned Sparrows are winter birds around here for us. We see them in abundance while it is cold, before they take off for the tundra areas of British Columbia and Alaska for the rest of the year. Golden-crowned sparrows are large plump sparrows that have a distinctive grey face with a black cap and yellow crown patch. When we see them around the Pacific Northwest, they are usually in their non-breeding plumage, so they are duller, and a more mottled grey and brown than the sharp contrasts of their breeding plumage.

They breed in shrubby tundra, but when they are here for the winter, they prefer willows, riparian habitats (like what most of the refuge is), slow moving or still water, and gardens where they like to eat seeds off the ground near backyard feeders. They enjoy many kinds of seeds. They also eat fruits, grains, buds, flowers, and plant sprouts. The animal portion of their diet includes ants, wasps, bees, moths, butterflies, beetles, crane flies, and termites.

This sparrow is one of the least known of our songbirds, particularly on its northern breeding grounds. It has been the subject of only a few laboratory and field studies, so most of what we know about it comes from scattered notes in scientific journals.

Did you know? 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.

Photo Credit: Lyn Topinka