![]() ![]() White-throated Sparrows enthusiastically frequent backyard feeders with millet, sunflower seeds, and the like.Īway from the feeder, White-throated Sparrows search for food by hopping about on the ground or flitting up into shrubs or the low-slung branches of trees. In spring, the sparrows will readily fill up on buds and blossoms from late summer to early winter, they consume a lot of berries as well. The winter diet of the White-throated Sparrow is dominated by seeds of grasses and forbs, while in the summer nesting season arthropods–insects such as ants, flies, beetles, caterpillars, and wasps as well as spiders and millipedes–become the most important food. Migrating White-throated Sparrows may be encountered just about anywhere in the Lower 48 east of the Rockies, though the western reaches see much lower numbers. As with many songbirds, White-throated Sparrows flock together in winter – sometimes with other sparrow species or juncos as well – and establish a clear social hierarchy. and down into northern Mexico, favoring hedgerows, brush, groves, yard- and garden-scapes, and city parks. In winter, the bird roams much of the southern and eastern U.S. ![]() Such nesting habitat typically comes with a heavy understory. In summer, White-throated Sparrows nest in conifer or hardwood stands of North America’s boreal and northern mixed-hardwood forests: mostly Canada but also the Upper Midwest and Northeast of the U.S. (The two species aren’t especially closely related, but Dark-eyed Juncos are in the sparrow family.) Location & habitat ![]() It’s not all that common, but White-throated Sparrows are known to occasionally hybridize with Dark-eyed Juncos, producing a bird grayer and more drably marked than a pure-blooded White-throated. More subtly, White-crowned Sparrows grow a bit larger and lankier than their cousin. The White-crowned Sparrow, however, lacks the snowy throat and has a brighter, orange-ish bill compared to the White-throated’s dark gray one. As we mentioned, color morphs also distinguish themselves in the behavioral department – including when it comes to romantic pairing-up – which we’ll get into shortly.Īt a quick glance, the White-throated Sparrow may be confused with its close relative the White-crowned Sparrow, which overlaps with the other in range but tends to be more common in western North America. White-striped White-throated Sparrows (there’s a mouthful) tend to be marginally larger than their Tan-striped counterparts. To some extent, the tan-striped morph resembles first-winter White-throated Sparrows of both varieties. The self-explanatory colors referenced in these names refer to the stripes on the sides of the sparrow’s head as well as the supercilium, or “eyebrow.” The white-striped form also has a brighter yellow lore (area between the eye and the bill) as compared to the tan-striped’s duller one. Those plumage variations reflect among the more interesting aspects of the White-crowned Sparrow, which we teased in the introduction: The bird comes in two color morphs, the tan-striped and white-striped, which are roughly coequal in the population. The crown comes patterned with either boldly contrasting black and white stripes or slightly less boldly contrasting black and tan stripes. The vividly marked head, though, is diagnostic, not least due to the namesake feature: a white throat crisply demarked by dark lines. The body is a sparrow-typical rufous and brown mass with white- and black-streaked wings and a mottled, grayish belly. ![]() It’s typically about 6.5 to 7 inches in length and spreads an 8- or 9-inch wingspan.Īs with many sparrows, juveniles of the White-throated can easily be confused with those of close relatives, but adults are fairly distinctive if you can get a good bead on them. The White-throated, though, is the smallest – and among the stockiest – of the Zonotrichia species found north of Mexico, usually weighing less than an ounce. White-throated Sparrows belong to the North American sparrow genus Zonotrichia, the members of which tend to be fairly large sparrows indeed, the biggest true sparrow on the continent, Harris’s Sparrow, belongs to Zonotrichia. Two equally numerous color morphs interbreed and exhibit some intriguing behavioral differences: something to cue into whether you’re watching a flock along some thicketed forest edge or massed around your feeder. during winter, retreating to the woods of Canada and the northern fringe of the American Midwest and Northeast to nest. The plump and chipper White-throated Sparrow provides an attractive, sweet-voiced presence in suburban yards and country fields across most of the eastern and southern U.S. ![]()
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