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White-throated Sparrow | Zonotrichia albicollis
Witkeelgors | Chingolo gorjiblanco
The White-throated Sparrow is a large, sturdy sparrow with a striped head and a sharply defined white throat. It breeds in the forests of Canada and the north-eastern United States and in the guide area is a scarce winter visitor to northern Mexico, mainly along the border with Texas.
Voice
The song is a clear, drawn-out whistle of a few pure notes, followed by a series of triplets, like fee-fee fidele fidele fidele; sometimes heard in winter. The call is a sharp, metallic chink and a thin tseet.
Recording: Ray Cooke — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
16–18 cm. Large and fairly long, with a conical grey bill. Head with black lateral crown-stripes, a narrow pale median crown-stripe, a broad supercilium that is yellow in front of the eye and white or buff behind it, and a black eye-stripe. The white throat is sharply bordered against the grey breast. Back warm brown with black streaks, wings with two narrow white wing-bars. There are two colour morphs: one with a white and one with a tan supercilium; birds in winter and young birds are duller, with a less crisp throat and faint streaks on the breast.
Confusion species
White-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys lacks the white throat and the yellow spot in front of the eye, has a pink to yellow bill and a greyer breast. Golden-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia atricapilla has a yellow forecrown and no white supercilium. Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis, a resident in the mountains of southern Mexico and Central America, has a rufous nape band and a black patch on the side of the breast.
Habitat
In winter dense scrub, forest edges, hedgerows, riverside thickets and gardens and parks with shrubs. It lives in small flocks, often with other sparrows, and searches the ground for seeds and insects by scratching in the leaf litter with both feet at once.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Breeds in the coniferous and mixed forests of Canada and the north-eastern United States. Winters in the eastern and southern United States and south into northern Mexico. In the guide area mainly in Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Coahuila, more scarcely and irregularly in Chihuahua, Sonora and Baja California.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In winter best found by checking scrub edges and gardens with sparrows in north-eastern Mexico; the metallic chink call often gives the species away before it is seen.
Conservation status
Least Concern (LC). Very numerous, but in North America it has declined over the long term. In the guide area a scarce winter visitor.
Scientific name
Zonotrichia albicollis | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Fringilla albicollis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Zonotrichia was introduced in 1832 by Swainson. Zonotrichia is Greek, from zōnē 'band' and thrix 'hair'. albicollis is Latin, from albus 'white' and -collis 'necked' (from collum 'neck'), after the sharply defined white throat. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pennsylvania.