Scientific Name: Zonotrichia leucophrys
Diet: White-Crowned Sparrow eats seeds, bugs, fruit, and grains. They eat a variety of bugs including spiders, wasps, bees, beetles, and caterpillars. They also eat elderberries and blackberries for fruit, and barley and corn for grains.
Habitat: The White-Crowned Sparrow can be found in suburban areas like backyards, road sides, and city parks. They also live in shrubby areas, forest edges, wetlands, and fields.
Sound: The White-Crowned Sparrow’s song is a few clear whistling notes, or a trill. The call is a sharp peek! peek! peek! peek! that is repeated several times.
Nesting: White-Crowned Sparrows usually place their nests on the ground, but can be up to 10 feet up. It is often built at the base of a shrub. The nest is made of strips of bark, feathers, sticks, pine needles, and sticks, and lined with hair and grass. White-Crowned Sparrows lay 3 to 7 eggs, and incubate them for 11 to 14 days.
Behavior: White-Crowned Sparrows are ground foragers. They often forage in open areas near shelter. White-Crowned Sparrows scratch in the leaves and dirt with their feet to find food.
Description/field marks: White-Crowned Sparrows have Greyish white undersides, breasts, throats, and napes, and brown backs streaked with white, black, and light and dark brown. They have black eye lines and white superciliums, and white crowns with black stripes on either side of the crown. Their bills are yellow and their legs are pinkish. White-Crowned Sparrows are about 6 inches long, and have wings spans of about 8 to 9 inches .
How to attract: Put out a bird feeder with sunflower seeds and other seeds to attract White-Crowned Sparrows. It is a good idea to put seed on or near the ground since White-Crowned Sparrows are ground feeders.
White-Crowned Sparrow