The White-Crowned sparrow.

The white-crowned sparrow is a very common song bird that can be found in a variety of habitats from Alaska to Mexico. It is rather confusing to study white-crowned sparrows as there are several different “races” to be observed all along the western states to Mexico. There are differences in the stripes on their heads and even in their songs from one area to another. In other words, a white-crowned sparrow in San Diego can have a different song than one here in Wallowa County. However, I’m going to leave that to the nit-picking ornithologists as that takes the joy out of bird-watching for the average observer.

I think this photo I took shows the dignity of his posture. As far as its song, it is rather wheezy compared to some of the more melodious songs of the sparrow family.

As near as I can tell, the race we have here in Wallowa County is called the Mountain White Crown and breeds in the high mountains from the Canadian border to the Sierras of California. They winter mostly in the southwestern states. According to my observations, their preferred habitat seems to be the brushy areas where they usually nest on the ground. However, it isn’t unusual to see them in backyard gardens in the suburbs of towns.

They eat both seeds and insects and can be observed scratching in the leaves to find food underneath dense shrubs. For those of you who climb clear up above the timberline in the Wallowa Mountains, you will see these sparrows along with gray-crowned rosy finches and neither species show much fear of humans. I have personally observed most of the white-crowned sparrows while trout-fishing in Joseph Creek where there is dense bushes and plenty of water.

One other peculiarity of these sparrows is they scratch with both feet and jump back to see what they have uncovered. I used to watch them under our juniper trees outside our windows. We always got to see them in the spring and autumn as they made a “pit-stop” at our acreage while migrating.

E.H. Van Blaricom resides in Joseph.