The white-crowned sparrow lives up to its colorful name
Hardy and easily identified species winters in flocks throughout the state
Most birders will tell you that identifying sparrow species can be a challenge. Many sparrows look very similar and are usually somewhat dull compared with other, more colorful songbirds. There is, however, one sparrow that stands out from the rest, and that is the white-crowned sparrow. The whitecrowned sparrow is aptly named. This sparrow is fairly large, averaging about 7 inches long, and has distinctive black and white stripes on its head and a pinkishorange-colored beak. Immature whitecrowned sparrows have gray and brown striping on the head. These features do make this sparrow easier to identify.
These attractive sparrows winters throughout New Mexico. They form small flocks in the winter and can be seen mainly in brushy habitat along roadsides and in overgrown fields. Like many other sparrow species, the white-crowned feeds mainly on the ground. Their diet is varied and consists of seeds, grains, fruits such as elderberries and insects such as caterpillars and beetles. They will eat from bird feeders and prefer black-oil sunflower seeds, but because they are mainly ground feeders, they will eat just about any seeds that fall under the feeder. When feeding, the white-crowned sparrow does what is called “double scratching” — they move their feet back and forth in the same spot on the ground, turning over leaves and other debris looking for insects to pounce on. Because they like brushy habitat, another way to lure this sparrow to your yard is by adding a brush pile.
The whitecrowned sparrow summers in parts of the northern Rockies, the Pacific Northwest and as far north as Alaska and northern Canada. The female builds the nest 1½ to 10 feet off the ground in tall shrubs. The white-crowned sparrows that nest on the tundra are forced to build their nests on the ground and conceal them among mosses and lichens.
White-crowned sparrows are tough little birds. The white-crowned sparrows that nest in Alaska migrate up to 2,600 miles to winter in Southern California. A migrating white-crowned sparrow was tracked moving 300 miles in one night. It has also been found that they can run on a treadmill at a pace of about one-third of a mile an hour without getting tired.
Fortunately for us, the white-crowned sparrow is numerous, estimated at about 60 million. Overall populations, however, decreased by 29 percent from 1966 to 2012.
Wherever you are in New Mexico this winter, be sure to keep an eye out for this amazing sparrow.