Bird Description

Breeds in mixed forest and bogs. Common winter visitor to parks, gardens, and woodland edges with undergrowth. Like other Zonotrichia, can sing in winter, slow clear whistles: so wee wee wee wee wee. Call: a sharp chink. Found in flocks, often at feeders. Feeds on the ground or low in the undergrowth, and quick to move to denser cover. ID: A heavy-bellied sparrow with a thick neck, domed crown, and fairly long tail. Upperparts appear mostly rufous-brown with large black smudgy streaks but has a uniform rump. 2 wing bars. Underparts are always browner on the flanks, palest on belly, and grayer across breast, often with smudgy streaks. The throat ranges from striking white to dingy buff and usually has a black border. Supercilium varies from dark tan to gleaming white, variably yellow above the lores. Color patterns are highly variable. Usually treated as 2 morphs: white-striped and tan-striped, however, better thought of as clinal with many intermediate. Further complicated by ? averaging brighter than ?. Nonbr: duller, with white-striped birds becoming more like tan-striped. Brighter after spring molt. 1st-w: dull and similar to dull nonbr but usually with heavier streaking on underparts.