Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Sparrow identification can be tricky - they're quick, they're small, and for the most part, they're almost all brown!  Some insist that they all look the same, and that may be true at first glance.  But closer study will begin to reveal striking color patterns and subtle differences between species.  Soon you will realize what a wealth of different sparrows we have in the west!
 
Last week while hiking along the Stanislaus River near the town of Knight's Ferry, I was able to snap a few photos of a little flock of Rufous-crowned sparrows.  These small passerines have bright reddish crowns and distinct white eyerings, characteristic features of this species.
 
 
Rufous-crowned sparrows are birds of the arid southwest, inhabiting rocky hillsides covered in sparse vegetation.  Boulder-strewn canyons in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada seem to be favorable habitat for these sparrows.  They are nonmigratory and tend to stick to their own territory, so even during the blazing heat of our central California summers, they can be found scuttling among the rocks under the scant cover of nearly see-through shrubs.
  

Rufous-crowned sparrows forage on the ground for insects, seeds and herbaceous shoots, generally staying beneath the cover of scraggly shrubs.  Interestingly, they seem to avoid areas of dense vegetation and benefit from periodic fires that maintain their favored open habitat.  Though of course they can fly, Rufous-crowned sparrows are not very good at it; according to one source, the farthest distance an individual has ever been recorded flying is 540 feet!  They typically stick pretty close to the earth, running from predators rather than flying, and even build their nests on or very near the ground, usually hidden in vegetation or under rocky overhangs.

 
For information on a few more of our native sparrows, follow these links:
White-crowned Sparrow
Bell's Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Sparrow ID Tips

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