Friday’s Feathered Friends-Golden-crowned Sparrow

Posted in Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, Nikon, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , ,

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

I last shared this Sparrow in 2015. I don’t see many of them and I only see them during the Winter migration hanging out with the White-crowned Sparrows, but sadly, never at my feeder. Last week I saw this one.

Male Golden-crowned Sparrow

He was pretty skittish. Every time I tried getting closer he flew further away so these are pretty well cropped.

Fun Facts:

    • This sparrow is one of the least known of our songbirds, particularly on its northern breeding grounds. It has been the subject of only a few laboratory and field studies, so most of what we know about it comes from scattered notes in scientific journals.
    • Miners in the Yukon at the turn of the twentieth century woefully referred to the Golden-crowned Sparrow as the “no gold here” bird, because its song resembled that depressing phrase. They also interpreted its song to say “I’m so tired,” prompting them to dub the bird “Weary Willie.”
    • The Golden-crowned Sparrow arrives earlier and stays longer on its California wintering grounds than almost any other bird species.
    • When day length increases in the spring, the Golden-crowned Sparrow detects the change through photoreceptors (light-sensitive cells). Its body responds by putting on fat and getting an urge to migrate.
    • The oldest Golden-crowned Sparrow on record was at least 10 years, 6 months old. It was caught by a bird bander in California in 1970 and released.

Fun facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

I hope you all have a great week-end!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.3.1

more to come…

49 thoughts on “Friday’s Feathered Friends-Golden-crowned Sparrow”

    1. He is isn’t he. I love the Willows. They’re red in the winter, orange in the fall, green in the spring and golden in the late summer. I never realized how many Willows types there are or how wonderfully colorful they can be until I started hanging out in the wetlands photographing birds. 😀

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  23. What a pleasure it is when the golden-crowned sparrow arrives. We get them in our backyard and they’re usually but not always with the white-crowned. And only in the winter. They peck at the ground and take baths in our birdbath. This one is a little bit chunkier than many of the sparrows, and oh how I love that golden crown. Your photos captured the golden here very nicely. Lovely post, Deborah.

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  24. It’s interesting that this is a ‘least-known’ bird. I certainly don’t remember hearing about it, but when I looked at the range map, that made sense. It’s a west coast bird; Texas birders probably wouldn’t post about it unless they’d been traveling. It’s common names are fun, as are the descriptions of its song. I listened, and found the song distinctive, but I rarely can make sense of what others hear in birdsong. Perhaps there’s a little anthropomorphizing of the sounds, too!

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    1. I thought that was interesting as well…it being the least known. Probably because we don’t see too many of them. I’ve got as many as 15 White-crowned Sparrows and a few House Sparrows visiting my suet feeder each winter, but never any Gold-Crowns. It’s only when I’ve been out in the field away from civilization I have seen them. When I listened to its song I didn’t hear I’m so tired at all. I heard a pretty little tune saying Hello. 😂 I think you’re on to something and there is some anthropomorphizing going on!

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