The White-crowned Sparrow is a fairly common migrant through Ontario but nesting is mainly in the vicinity of Hudson and James Bay. Most go south in winter to the southern United States and Mexico though some stay in our area near feeders.
Confusingly, many of the migrants we see are young birds and have brownish crowns. We saw these this morning by the Guild Inn.
Another migrant bird named for the colour of its crown is the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. In general, the ruby crown is concealed showing up only in moments of excitement when the crown feathers are raised.
The kinglet that we saw this morning did not show the ruby crown.
Other birds:
Species list: double-crested cormorant, red-breasted merganser, killdeer, ring-billed gull, mourning dove, northern flicker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, American robin, ruby-crowned kinglet, golden-crowned kinglet, European starling, house sparrow, common grackle, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, white-crowned sparrow. (18 species)
Guild area scenes:
Today’s group:
Some botany:
MAILBOX
A short wonderful video explaining murmurations.
NATURE POETRY
The mug of cider simmered slow,
The apples sputtered in a row,
And, close at hand, the basket stood
With nuts from brown October’s wood. – John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
Miles Hearn
I saw a small flock of white and brown crowned sparrows eating on the ground at Colonel Sam Smith. I wondered about the ‘brown crowned’ so thanks for the information.
Diana