Golden-crowned Sparrow

Zonotrichia atricapilla
STANFORD LOCATIONS:
Common migrant and winter resident virtually throughout campus, occurring in a variety of habitat types but usually found in close proximity to the cover of brushy vegetation. Often occurs in flocks with White-crowned Sparrows, although more closely tied to shrubs and brushy vegetation than tall grasses and forbs away from brush, as is the White-crowned. Forages primarily on or near the ground, although in spring flocks forage in the crowns of flowering oaks and eucalyptus.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
F?
I: ? DAYS
ALTRICIAL
TREE
 0 - 2.5 feet
?
3-5
MONOG?
F: ? DAYS
 MF
SEEDS
BERRIES
BREEDING: Montane thickets and shrubs, dwarf conifs, brushy canyons. 1? brood.
DISPLAYS: ?
NEST: Usu sunk in ground at base of small tree or on horizontal branch of low tree; bulky, of grass, leaves, twigs, bark, moss, lined with fine grass, feathers, fur.
EGGS: Creamy or pale bluish-white, marked with reddish-browns. 0.9" (23 mm).
DIET: Nestlings probably fed 100% insects. In winter, buds, flowers, fresh seedlings (esp of annuals), seeds.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to n Baja.
NOTES: Male feeds incubating female. Details of breeding biology largely unknown. Stable winter flocks, often with White-crowned Sparrows, show site attachment to wintering territory.
ESSAYS: Adaptations for Flight; Site Tenacity; Mixed-Species Flocking; How Do We Find Out About Bird Biology?
REFERENCES: Pearson, 1979.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).