RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW

5 3/4"

SONG

FIELD IDENTIFICATION: 

The Rufous-crowned Sparrow is a year-round resident of Wise County.  However, it is easiest to locate it while it’s singing.  Overall, this sparrow is a dull gray brown with light streaking on the back.  It has rufous lateral crown stripes, a rufous eye stripe and a dark gray bill.  It also has a whitish malar and dark lateral throat stripes.

Immature White-crowned Sparrows with brown crowns sometimes may be mistaken for Rufous-crowned Sparrows.  The White-crowned Sparrow lacks the white malar with adjacent black stripe, and also has an orange or pink bill and two wing bars.

Photo by Claire and Mary Curry on June 25,  2001 on the Lyndon B. Johnson Grassland, Wise County, Texas

Photo by Claire and Mary Curry on June 16, 2001 on the Lyndon B. Johnson Grassland, Wise County, Texas

Sketched in color pencil by Claire Curry (Summer 2000)

A still shot taken from a video by Angelia Giles in Alvord, Texas in middle February, 2001