Lunchtime for a traveler
Rock Mathias took these photos of a White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) as it visited a feeder at Rock’s home in Stallion Springs.
These migratory sparrows arrive in large numbers in the Tehachapi Mountains in the wintertime, and can often be seen foraging in flocks, sometimes mixed with other small songbirds like Dark-eyed Juncos, House Finches, House Sparrows and others.
White-crowns typically feed on the ground, since their main food (especially in winter) is seeds. They will also eat pieces of leaves and other plant material, as well as insects. Whitecrowns usually find food among the leaf litter on the ground by using their feet like tiny rakes: they will give a backward hop, dragging their feet to disturb the soil or duff, and then they peer intently to see if they’ve uncovered anything edible.
White-crowns will come to bird feeders, but they often remain on the ground, eating seeds scattered by other birds. Adults have striking black and white stripes on their heads like they were wearing skunkskin hats and these are probably these easiest of all sparrows to identify.
Immature birds are more plain, and their head stripes are gray and reddish instead of black and white. Whitecrowned Sparrows have amazing alertness mechanisms that allow them to go without sleep for up to two weeks at a time while migrating.
White-crowned Sparrows are one of the “snowbirds” that are associated with winter in our area. Most of them live at high elevations and in the north, in Canada and Alaska, and migrate down to avoid the worst of winter weather. Whitecrowns from Alaska have been recorded flying 2,600 miles to spend the winter in Southern California.
NATURAL SIGHTINGS is a regular feature of the Tehachapi News edited by Jon Hammond which showcases photos of the natural beauty that enhances the quality of life in Tehachapi. If you have a good quality image of plants, animals, insects, trees, birds, weather phenomena, etc., taken in the Tehachapi area, you may submit it to the Tehachapi News. Submissions can be dropped by the News office in the form of a print or CD, or sent by email to: editorial@tehachapinews.com.