Go-Faster Stripes

The sparrows with the go-faster stripes are back! Zonotrichia leucophrys (White-crowned Sparrow) is seasonal here, and while they may outnumber the other birds at my feeders for a while, the population will diminish over the summer as other sparrows move in. They will still be the dominant sparrow species, sharing the spotlight with a handful of Golden-crowneds and the occasional Chipping thrown in for spice, but will be only a small portion of the overall census which includes finches, grosbeaks, jays, etc. Now just for a moment, think about the racing stripes and how they might have contributed to this species' survival. With the head tipped down to scrounge seeds in grass, the bird's flecked brown back looks from above like a patch of dirt. The stripes appear to be nothing more than light and shadow to a passing predator. Pretty cool, huh?

Compare-A-Sparrow

Day 187: Several sparrow species visit my yard over the summer, the most common being White-Crowned (Zonotrichia leucophrys, right). As noted yesterday, Chipping (Spizella passerina) does not appear every year, but Golden-Crowned (Z. atricapilla, left) does. In the course of the thirty-plus years I've lived here, I have observed one English Sparrow (Passer domesticus, non-native and a nuisance) and only a handful of White-Throated (Z. albicollis). However, given that I currently have three of those listed showing up daily at the feeders, and the Birdcast Migration Dashboard says that White-Throated is passing through the county, I have high hopes of seeing one again. Habitat! It's all about providing habitat. When I first moved here, there was very little in the way of shrubbery other than a strip of woods on the far side of the house and a hedge out front. I began planting trees and bushes with a mind to attracting birds. It took ten years or so before they began showing up in number, but I really felt the job was done when the first chickadees settled in. Now, on many days during the summer, I might count two dozen or more different species happily sharing space with one another where food is plentiful.

Going Head-To-Head

Day 194: The sudden spring influx of birds finds the sparrows going head-to-head for seed and, if at first glance you assumed these two were the same species, look again. Notice that the one on the left is wearing a white bicycle helmet, whereas the one on the right has a "mohawk" hairdo, dyed yellow to demand your attention to detail. Now you've got it! Here we have a White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and a Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla), the two Sparrow species most common to my yard. The males of most Sparrow species generally have some obvious colouration which makes it possible to tell them apart. However, the females can present problems even for experienced birders. It takes a bit of practice to train the eye to look for field identification points such as eye stripes, wing bars, beak shape, leg colour, breast markings, etc., but if you keep those things in mind while watching birds in your own yard, you will soon discover that it's easier to tell LBJs and LGBs apart (birder parlance for "Little Brown Jobs" and "Little Grey Birds").

I Made Another Bird!

Day 199: I hope my readers will indulge me in these breaks from my customary subject matter. Believe me, drawing takes up only a very small portion of my pandemic routine, and most of my day is filled currently with spinning, weaving, quilting and (weather permitting) gardening. That said, I am trying to do at least one sketch per day as I try to find my style. The White-Crowned Sparrow shown above was first done in pencil, then inked before being coloured in with Prismacolor pencils. It was an experiment to see whether I preferrred the pencils to watercolours, and now I can't decide. Each medium has its advantages and disadvantages. I find I have more control over where the colour goes with pencils, but I prefer the way watercolours blend. Of course, watercolours sometimes blend when you don't mean them to, so that can also be a disadvantage to a novice watercolourist like me. Pencils, on the other hand, tend to accumulate more heavily on any textural bumps in the paper, but I understand this issue can be reduced by using a "blending stump." I don't happen to have one handy, but YouTube is full of videos on how to make your own. For this illustration, I used the basic sketching instructions (circles, ovals and lines) in "Laws Guide to Drawing Birds" and changed it up a bit to individualize the "racing-stripe" sparrow by altering the position of the legs and feet and adding a branch.

Go-Faster Stripes

Day 174: The Sparrows with the go-faster stripes are back in number! Also known around here as "Racing-Stripe Sparrows," White-Crowned (Zonotrichia leucophrys) looks to me like he's wearing a designer bicycle helmet. The lines of white above his eyes intersect with the one over the top of his head, meeting at the back.

I am seeing a greater number of birds in my yard this spring than ever before, although they are all familiar species. I know that Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife was concerned about salmonellosis being spread and asked that people take down their backyard feeders. I took an alternate route, one which I instituted several years ago when House Finch Eye Disease (conjunctivitis) was prevalent: disinfecting the feeders by pouring boiling water on them once a week. I had noticed HFED in some of my visitors and read up on the subject. After I began disinfecting, it cleared up in my local population within two weeks and has not reoccurred. Nor have I had any sick or lethargic birds here this year, but I am wondering if the increase of visitors to my feeders is a result of other people discontinuing feeding. I think my readers know that I would take any measures I felt necessary to protect my birdie friends.

In other news, I am experiencing problems with my computer, so I will ask for your indulgence if there is a sudden cessation of posts from me. Thanks!

White-Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia Leucophrys

Day 194: I refer to them as "racing-stripe sparrows" or "the guys with the go-faster stripes." The head of the White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) is marked by three distinct white stripes, one through each eye and one on the crown which meet at the back of the head, which makes the bird look as if it's wearing a bicycle helmet. When the bird is excited or curious, it may raise its crown feathers. As a species, they are gregarious little critters, often feeding among other birds including juncos and other sparrows. Their primary diet consists of weed and grass seeds, as well as a wide variety of insects and even some small fruits such as elderberries or blackberries. Their feeding habits resemble those of the Spotted Towhee: hop, scratch, hop-back-scratch. This action raises seeds and bugs to the surface where they are more accessible. White-Crowned Sparrows tend to stay in any given area, so their song often shows dialectic differences in different regions. Males which live on the border between two regions may learn to sing two different dialects. The locals can often be heard calling for "more cheezies," one of the mnemonics which can be used to identify this bird by ear.

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.

Comparative Anatomy, Sparrow-Style

Day 198: Sparrow species aren't nearly as confusing as Warblers, but even so, they can be daunting for beginning birders. Take for example Golden-Crowned Sparrows (top) and White-Crowned Sparrows (bottom). Young Golden-Crowned birds often don't exhibit the distinctive yellow patch on the tops of their heads until they've gone through their first moult. A novice birder, seeing only a white stripe might assume that a young Golden-Crowned was a White-Crowned, but closer observation of the head will give a second clue. White-Crowned Sparrows also have a white stripe above the eye. The top stripe and the eye band intersect on the back of the head, giving the bird the appearance of wearing a bicycle helmet. Golden-Crowned has only the single stripe, and even if the yellow feathers have not emerged, this distinguishes them from White-Crowned quite readily.

White-Crowned Sparrow

Day 195: "Sparrows with racing stripes." That's what I call White-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys), and they're such active little hoppers that it suits them well. They're the most common sparrow in my yard, but even so, the populations of other species like juncoes and purple finches have always outnumbered them by a substantial margin. Not this year! The yard is positively alive with them, a dozen or more at the base of each feeder, scavenging the seeds kicked out by other birds. They prefer to forage on the ground, although they will visit the feeders when discarded food runs short or when I've put out fresh nyger (a favourite with them).

Yard Birds

Day 223: Five years ago, I got new neighbours, noisy ones. They had a kid (young), they had dogs, they had parties, they had arguments, and they had cell phones which must not have worked indoors because they talked on them on their porch at all hours of the day and night. The bird population which I had cultivated over twenty years dropped to an all-time low in the first two weeks, never returning to more than about 60% of the former census. Those birds which did come to the feeders were jumpy and nervous even around me, a radical change from my having to ask them to move over when I went to put out breakfast. My bird-watching activities also suffered. While I had formerly spent many hours sitting on the porch in the company of my feathered friends, now I seldom stayed out more than five minutes at a time, hoping to avoid being engaged in complaining one-sided conversation. In short, I readjusted my lifestyle, all but giving up an activity which had previously given me great enjoyment. It goes without saying that when the neighbours announced their intention to move a few weeks ago, I felt secretly pleased.

The house is unoccupied now, soon to be demolished and with no certain plans for the property's future. Although thieves have already ransacked it, one good thing has come to pass: my bird census is visibly growing, as shown by these photos all taken within half an hour pleasantly spent on my back stoop.

The Guy With The Racing Stripes

Day 177: Several species of sparrow come to my feeders during the summer months, notably Song Sparrows (back), the guys with the racing stripes (White-Crowned Sparrows, front), and although they haven't shown up yet, Golden-Crowned Sparrows as well. Today seemed to be bath day, every puddle hosting a bird or two. The juncoes and jays were also active, as were half a dozen Spotted Towhees and much to my delight, a couple of Rufous Hummingbird females. Time to lay in a good supply of seed!

White-Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia Leucophrys

Day 193: Let's throw away the Latin and the descriptive common name and call this little fellow a Go-Faster Sparrow. He certainly has the racing stripes, and zips around the feeders as if to say, "Move over, you Juncos! I'm coming through!" The species is seasonal in my yard as are several other varieties of Sparrow, but one of the more common summer residents. Wait a minute..."summer?" Well, not this morning. I think the snow took us all by surprise.