365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
The Guy With The Racing Stripes
Day 180: Only a handful of Sparrow species come to my feeders, but one of the most common is the guy with the racing stripes (or bicycle helmet, whichever you prefer). White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) is very easy to identify. Less frequently, his Golden-Crowned cousins show up, their heads marked by a single Mohawk streak which is bright yellow in mature birds. Young Golden-Crowneds may resemble White-Crowned at first glance, but the presence or absence of the "helmet" pattern formed by the stripes through the eyes and on the crown should resolve any confusion between the two. In any event, his hat's not keeping his head dry, not today, not for the last several days. I think he may be starting to wonder what happened to that nice spring weather we had at the beginning of the month.
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