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Nature's Solace
Celebrating Nature in the Pacific Northwest
Golden Crowned Sparrow - Zonotrichia atricapilla
The Golden Crowned sparrows are daily visitors in my yard every winter - enjoying the suet and feeding from the ground. Their winter season extends from late October to early spring where they are common from Vancouver, B.C. to Baja, California. In the fall and spring they migrate at night. Summer breeding and nest occurs in shrubby tundra habitats near the coast or in the mountains in Alaska and northwestern Canada.
Golden Crowned sparrows have complex social structures that differ with the summer and winter season.
Their signature black head stripes sandwiching the yellow crowns - common to both male and female - are more than identifying features to these birds. What is fascinating
is that the brightness of their crown is an indication of social dominance. This is complex. According to researchers at the UC of Santa Cruz, Golden Crowned sparrows, interestingly, exhibit distinctly different social behaviors in the summertime, when they breed, and in the wintertime, when they migrate south.
During the summer breeding season, they are surrounded by "strangers" and the need to defend territory is fierce. Rather than squabble and physically fight, the brighter crowns serve as "badges of status" - they can gauge each other’s fighting ability by their black-and-yellow stripes alone. This plumage is only a social status among the "strangers" in their breeding grounds.
In the wintertime, these birds tend to migrate to the same area as the previous year, meeting up with GC sparrows who they know and remember - their "friends" if you will. I like the idea of the GC sparrows in my yard having reunited from the previous year. Regardless of the brightness of their crown, these birds who are unrelated but familiar with each other bond, forage, and alert each other to threats. These winter relationships can last a lifetime, resuming every winter as they come together again. (For more details, click here)
The yellow crown gives away this otherwise camouflaged bird.
The yellow crown hue is directly related to the intake of healthy carotenoids in their diet - aquired by eating plants or seeds or insects who have eaten the plants.
Brighter colored crowns are associated with better fed and more robust birds.
Golden Crowned sparrows are usually monogomous. However, females are known to also mate with multiple partners. Their nests are usually built on the ground in a well concealed site, under thickets of shrubs or willows.. The site is protected by the male who sings from a nearby perch.
According to All About Birds, "the female collects the nesting material while the male follows her around and sings". That's a sweet image!
The male feeds the female while she is incubating the 3 - 5 eggs. Both share the responsibility of feeding the nestlings who are born naked. The young probably leave the nest in about nine days. There may be one or two broods.
Golden Crowned sparrow songs - Both male and female GC sparrows sing throughout the winter. This may be to mark their territories, signal food sources to other sparrows in an act of cohesion and community, or simply as a way to greet and bond with the other familiar sparrows. Listen to their song here.
Interestingly, different dialects have been documented across their geographic range.
Golden Crowned sparrows mostly feed on seeds and insects.
They also enjoy fruits like apples and elderberry as well as plant buds, flowers and sprouts. While they will feed at my suet feeder, they are mostly ground feeders.
The dull yellow crown in the winter is a result of seasonal molting. However some males may retain their bright crowns
that signals their social dominance. The crowns of juveniles are brown to brownish yellow.
Resources
Alaska Fish and Wildlife News
Klamath Bird Observatory
Animal Diversity Web
Audubon
All About Birds
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