Mystery Bird: Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla

Wow.

I've gone through the whole Sibley guide, and I'm stumped. I'm going to think about it during my commute and see if anything occurs to me.

Things I think I know, that I'm trying to make match something:

* December in Washington state

* pinkish/orange legs

* no webbing on the feet, but an impressive back claw

* really interesting hints of plumage (light streaks on the left wing? that pattern of chetnut on the cap, then light tan in the face/neck area? those light streaks on the wings?

* my wife and daughter, whom I polled for their reactions, both said, "that's a duck". But I can't make that work.

Help!

One thing that keeps occurring to me is House Sparrow. Then I find things that make me pooh-pooh that notion. But I keep coming back to it.

For what that's worth.

With those pinkish legs and bright white dotted wingbars I think this may be a Zonotrichia sparrow, and I'm going to go with an immature White-crowned Sparrow although I'm not convinced of it. I think I see some head striping that fits better with white-crowned sparrow than Golden-crowned sparrow, and both of these would be present in clark co. WA at this time.

It's not a poor photo: it's actually a realistic image of a Blur tit (Passer hypercaffeinata). Diagnostic field markings: blur. Diagnostic behavior: refer to image.

It's not a poor photo: it's actually a realistic image of a Blur tit (Passer hypercaffeinata). Diagnostic field markings: blur. Habitat: dumpsters outside coffee shops. Diagnostic behavior: refer to image. My favorite bird after the Petrified Forest woodpecker (Petropicus concussus).

Sorry about the repeated post; lag.

Is it possible that Grrl is having us on again? There's a blur of brown cap and black eyestripe. Could it be another Chipping Sparrow?

I cheated and looked at the answer in the back of the book (though it took some digging to find it). What a great shot! :-)

What a great photo!

My first reaction was 'house sparrow', but when I looked more closely, I decided I was wrong. After a bit of thinking (and looking) I am torn between American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea)and Chipping Sparrow. CHippers aren't usually that rufous in December, so I don't think that's it. The S. arborea has the double strong white wing bars, the rufous cap and bi-color beak (with lower mandible being the lighter)and the orangy-pink legs-so that's my guess. But the range maps I looked at don't seem to include Clark County WA, so I am probably wrong.

Hmmm, certainly a bi-colored bill, white wingbars, long pink legs, a longish tail, buff on the face, throat, and breast, although I'm not seeing a clear supercilium or eyebrow but a hint of an eyestripe, so Colin, I think you were on the right track by looking at the genus Zonotrichia...

there are five species: the Rufous-collared (Zonotrichia capensis) can be excluded because of range, as would be the Harris's Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula) which would have an all-pink bill anyway;

not sure about the White-throated (Zonotrichia albicollis) because I'm not seeing a definitive white-striped crown and certainly no white on the throat although there is actually a tan-striped morph, but again I'm not sure if they winter that far north-west;

both the White-crowned (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and Golden-crowned (Zonotrichia atricapilla) have wingbars, gray faces and underparts but I would expect the adults would also be showing more of a definitive crown although in non-breeding plumage both species' crowns are subdued, even more so with juveniles...

I'm sure Paul will correct me if I've erred, but between the last three- White-throated, White-crowned, and Golden-crowned, the first has a dark bill, the second has either a pink or a yellow bill and only the third would have a bi-colored bill (Patuxent Wildlife Reserach Center)

So I'm going to go against the flow and choose a non-breeding Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)

Re-read Colin's post and wanted to compare juveniles:

juvenile White-crowned Sparrow (note the pink bill with dark tip)

juvenile White-throated Sparrow (note dark bill)

juvenile Golden-crowned Sparrow (note the bi-colored bill)

David, i think your right. After looking at the photo again and reading your comments I too think its a Golden-crowned Sparrow. I think I can even see a blurred hint of the yellowish crown stripe and you're right about the bicolored bill. In any case, Im pretty convinced its a Zonotrichia, its just to big and chunky to be a Spizella (chipping, american tree etc.).

Colin, I have a post pending (I think because I attached three photos) that compares the bills of all three juveniles- White-crowned, White-throated, and Golden-crowned, where the bi-color comparison would support Golden-crowned... I'm not sure whether the photo above is non-breeding adult or immature (there are no subspecies recorded)

Or of course I could be totally off the mark as John's little lark may have exercised too much the little grey cells...!

David, you're right about the bill colors in Zonotrichia, as far as I can find. But ....

My first inclination was Tree Sparrow, and the bicolored bill still points that way. Assuming the black eyestripe is really a stripe and not an artifact of the eye moving across the field, that would completely rule out Tree Sparrow.

The flanks seem streaked -- this would completely rule out Zonotrichia. They are streaked as juveniles, but they don't retain that plumage very long. Juvenile Tree Sparrows hold on longer, and I suppose that this could be a juvie Tree, but I noticed something tucked away in Sibley's that might fit better.

How about Lapland Longspur? They show rufous edging on the tertials, wing bars, with the upper one being brighter, streaked flanks, and a pale face (all the other streaky sparrows have dark streaks into the face area). And the location and date are correct.

Paul, I am sold on the bi-colored bill and the legs are irrefutably pink.

The beautiful photos of both male and female Lapland Longspurs by Robert Royse show a uniformly colored bill but unmistakeable dark legs which our subject does not have.

(Actually, the rare McCowan's Longspur female, Calcarius mccownii, would seem to be a better fit plumage-wise, but still excluded for the same reasons, or possibly the pinkier-legged Smith's Longspur, Calcarius pictus, but it too has a pinkish bill with a black tip and I'm seeing two colors, dark above, yellowish below)

Your "streaked" impression actually confirms my suspicion that what we have here is indeed a juvenile Golden-crowned Sparrow (as photographed again by Robert Royse) and not a non-breeding adult where the hint of gold together with a chestnutty wash to the crown might appear as the rufous head "streak" above.

Good call on the leg color, David. Ah, well...

After seeing that one photo, I guess Golden-crowned Sparrow works, in a first-winter plumage. Sibley's mentions that the actual juvenal plumage is lost early in this genus, but I should have checked on that first-winter. Neither of the guides I checked showed streaks in that plumage, but I should have remembered that White-throats actually do show faint streaks their first winter. (We don't get many Golden-crowneds around here).

Grrl, if Lyn Topinka has more photos of the same individual, could you please post one so we can rationalise our coloration/age assumptions?

well, david, i had future plans for that image, but i think it is more instructive to share it here, so i posted it for you all to look at.

and as you mention, psweet, this genus does lose its juvenal plumage early. i worked with white-crowned sparrows for my dissertation studies, and i found the young-of-the-year would moult into their first winter plumage several months or less after fledging.