What’s That Bird?: White-crowned Sparrow

Summary: A three-minute podcast from the hosts of The Feathered Desert about individual bird species found in the desert Southwest.

 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes: Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Pat Goltz

Ornithology by Frank Gill 

“Migration Pattern of Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow Along the Pacific Flyway” by Simeon Lisovski, Zoltan Nemeth, John C. Wingfield, Jesse S. Krause, Keith A. Hobson, Nathaniel E. Seavy, Jennifer Gee, and Marilyn Ramenofsky

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

 

Transcript

Host voice - Welcome to the Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds that we share this amazing desert landscape with.

 

Kiersten - This small ground bird is a winter resident of Arizona (a true snowbird) but is found all across the North American continent from the Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska down to Central Mexico. It is a medium sized sparrow with an orange beak and brown streaking on the wings and back and gray underparts. The male has a black and white striped pattern on the crown of the head while females and juveniles have rusty brown and gray stripes on the crown of the head.

 

            They are most often found on the ground scratching for fallen seeds, fruits, buds, and small insects.

 

            The white-crowned sparrow is one of the most studied birds in North America. The majority of our knowledge of bird song and song development is due to the studies of these birds.  (White-crowned sparrow song plays) The white crowned sparrow song included the melody in this recording, the chipping call is another bird.

 

Males learn their songs as they grow up. They memorize phrases that they hear from 10 to 50 days old.  Birdsong can vary within the same species. Just as the same human language within a country can develop regional accents, so can bird song.  One well-known dialect of a population of White-crowned sparrow found in California is the Berkley Dialect and has been heard for over 60 years. Males that live near a territory border can learn two dialects and sing both songs. Female white-crowned sparrows also learn and use song.

 

There are five subspecies of white crowned sparrows in NA, four of them are migratory and may travel g reat distances such as the white crown sparrow that over winters in Arizona. This subspecies winters in the lower southwestern United States and Mexico but travels all the way to the artic tundra for breeding season. The females often overwinter farther south than the males. To make the most of their travel time they employ what is known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. That means one half of their brain rests while the other half remains alert. White crowned sparrows have been known to utilize this sleep pattern for up to two weeks during migration.

 

Bird song provided by Macauly Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Pat Goltz.