1352 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part s 



Washington: 46 records, April 24-July 22; 22 records, April 27- 

 May 6; 7 records, May 27-June 9; 3 records, June 24-July 22. 



ZONOTRICHIA ATRICAPILLA (Gnielin) 



Golden-crowned Sparrow 



PLATE 70 



Contributed by Junea W. Kelly 



Habits 



The strikingly handsome golden-crowned sparrow, the largest of 

 the so-called "crowned" sparrows, is a bird of extreme western North 

 America and many of the offshore islands. From its summer home 

 just south of the Arctic Circle to its casual occurrences in winter just 

 north of the Tropic of Cancer in southern Baja California, it ranges 

 through more than 40 degrees of latitude. A common and familiar 

 species, it winters plentifully from Vancouver Island south to northern 

 Baja California, with central and southern California its winter 

 metropolis. Announcing its arrival in autumn with its plaintive song 

 of three descending minor notes, it spends 8 months of the year in 

 this region. 



On its California wintering grounds Joseph Grinnell and Alden H. 

 Miller (1944) say it inhabits "An interrupted type of brushland, such 

 as constituted by streamside thickets, chaparral where broken up by 

 patches of open ground, and garden shrubbery. The cover sought is 

 somewhat shadier and cooler on the average than that frequented by 

 Gambel white-crowned sparrows, although commonly the two kinds 

 of sparrows are members of the same flock." 



Spring. — The movement northward from the wintering grounds 

 apparently starts in April. The spring migration is largely along the 

 coast and through the coastal lowlands and valleys. That individuals 

 occasionally stray to higher elevations is attested by birds in spring 

 plumage found frozen at 14,350 feet on Mt. Shasta (Chamberlain, 

 1916) and at 14,403 on Mt. Rainier (Brockman, 1941). Most birds 

 have left California by the end of the first week of May. Ira N. 

 Gabrielson and Stanley G. Jewett (1940) report the species most 

 plentiful in Oregon in April and early May, with a latest day of May 25 

 in Lane County. Stanley G. Jewett et al. (1953) state that in 

 Washington: 



The golden-crowned sparrow is a very common spring migrant west of the 

 Cascade Mountains, where it begins appearing in some numbers the last week in 

 April. According to Lien (Brown) the main body of the birds arrives at the 

 Destruction Island Lighthouse between May 1 and 10. It is said to be impossible 

 for the light-keepers to raise any garden truck while the flight is on, as the birds 



