GROSBEAKS, FINCHES, SPARROWS: Family Fringillidae [581] 



Golden-crowned Sparrow: 

 Zonotrichia coronata (Pallas) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Crown inclosed by black stripes, with median strife yellow in 

 front, ash gray behind; rest of upper part olive brown, streaked on back with blackish 

 brown; rump and tail plain, wing with two white bands; under parts gray; sides and 

 flanks washed with brown. Young: similar, but black crown stripes replaced by 

 brown streaked with black, and median stripe dull brownish yellow flecked or 

 streaked with dusky, the ash gray wanting; upper parts washed with brownish; 

 under parts soiled whitish. M.ale: length (skins) 5-93~7-i3> wing z. 99-3. 2.8, tail 

 i.89~3.z8, bill .44-. 5i. Female: length (skins) 6.15-6.65, wing z. 90-3. 17, tail 2.. 71- 

 3.15, bill .45-. 50." (Bailey) Nest: Built on ground, usually among matted thickets 

 of alders, made of sticks and rootlets and lined with fine grasses. Eggs: Usually 5, 

 ovate, with a variable ground color from pale greenish blue to vinaceous buff, 

 minutely spotted with reddish brown, more so at the large end. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from central Alaska southeast to central British 

 Columbia. Winters south to southern California. In Oregon: Abundant migrant 

 and less common but regular winter resident of western Oregon. Regular but far 

 less abundant migrant in eastern Oregon, where it is casual in winter. 



THE GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW was first listed from Oregon by Baird 

 (Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence 1858) on the basis of a specimen taken at 

 Fort Dalles, May n, 1855. Suckley (Cooper and Suckley 1860) erroneous- 

 ly believed it to be breeding at Fort Dalles, but Mearns (1879) an d Merrill 

 (1888), both of whom detected it at Fort Klamath, correctly designated 

 it as a migrant species. Since that time it has been mentioned in numerous 

 reports on Oregon birds. 



This large, handsome sparrow, with its gleaming golden head, arrives 

 from the North in September (our earliest date, September 10, Klamath 

 County) and remains until May (latest date, May 2.5, Lane County). In 

 western Oregon it is an exceedingly abundant migrant and a regular 

 winter resident of the fence rows, blackberry thickets, and weed patches. 

 It is most abundant in September and October in the fall and in April and 

 early May in the spring. East of the mountains it is a much less abun- 

 dant, although regular, migrant that in our experience is most common in 

 September and October, during which months we have records from 

 Klamath, Lake, Umatilla, and Wasco Counties. We have only one winter 

 record for the section east of the Cascades, a single bird noted by Jewett 

 near Vale, Malheur County, January 18, 1917. In the spring we have so 

 far noted it much less commonly, and it appears in our records only in 

 early May in Umatilla and Klamath Counties. This is perhaps due as 

 much to lack of time spent in this section during the spring season as to 

 scarcity of birds. At any rate it is one of the numerous points on which 

 much more detailed observation is needed. 



While in Oregon, the Golden-crowned Sparrows behave much as do 

 the Puget Sound Sparrows, which at times they outnumber. During 



