^Male abd female White-crowned sparrows.
Our main winter sparrow, large flocks of often dozens feed on the ground in yards, rabbitbrush areas, old fields, desert transition areas, and marsh/riparian edges. They arrive in September in small numbers (possibly as migrants passing through), soon swelling to high numbers in October when wintering birds arrive. They depart in May.
I have seen two races in our area, Gambel's (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli) which breeds in central Canada to Alaska, and Mountain (Z. l. oriantha) which breeds in mountains of the western U.S. Gambel's has white lores (area in front of eye) and Mountain has black lores. Mountain white-crowns nest in Nevada, in far northern ranges, about Lake Tahoe and Sierra Nevada places in California, in the White Mountains, and other scattered mountain localities.
^Female.
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