White-crowned Sparrow

The White-crowned Sparrow is a handsome little fellow; so handsome, in fact, that it was John James Audubon’s favourite bird. According to him, “… none other known to me as a visitor or inhabitant of the United States, exceeds it in beauty.” Audubon was a vain man with very long hair, and wrote, “My locks flew freely from under my hat, and every lady I met looked at them and then at me until she could see no more.” He was, however, persuaded to cut his hair before meeting the British royal family. He became so sad seeing his precious hair be sheared off that he was reminded “of the horrible times in the French Revolution when the same operation was performed upon all the victims murdered at the guillotine.” But, I digress.

White-crowned Sparrows have a sweet song, sung mainly by males. Young males learn how to sing in the first few months of life. However, they don’t just learn from Dad, but also their male neighbours. As with many birds, different areas of White-crowned have different songs, and males raised at the boundary between two dialects grow up to be bilingual.

I saw this bird March 23 at Boundary Bay at 72^nd Street. He was having a feast of seeds with Red-winged Blackbirds and other sparrows including Golden-crowned and Song.