White-throated Sparrow, tan-striped
Zonotrichia albicollis
White-throated Sparrow · Prospect Park · 1 March 2026
A White-throated Sparrow in the park undergrowth in March, near the end of its winter here. It breeds across the boreal forest of Canada and spends the cold months in exactly this kind of leaf litter under shrubs, scratching for seed.
The tan-and-black head stripes and buffy, rather than bright yellow, lores mark the tan-striped morph. The species comes in two permanent colour forms, white-striped and tan-striped, that persist for a bird's whole life regardless of age or sex. Odder still, tan-striped birds overwhelmingly pair with white-striped mates rather than their own morph, one of the few well-documented cases of a wild bird choosing the opposite type.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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