Bird Profile
Golden-crowned Sparrow
The West Coast's other big winter sparrow: gray-faced, dusky-billed, with a yellow forecrown that can be brilliant in spring and almost invisible in November. Three descending whistles give it away before you see it.
The short answer
- Adults show a black-bordered yellow forecrown patch; winter and immature birds may show only a dull yellowish smudge, or barely any at all.
- The most useful mark on a dull bird is the bill: grayish and dusky, not the clean pink or orange of a White-crowned Sparrow.
- This is a Pacific slope winter bird, common from British Columbia to Baja California from about September to late April.
- It feeds on the ground in flocks, so millet and sunflower on a low tray or bare soil beside cover is the whole setup.
- Golden-crowns eat buds, flowers and garden greens as well as seeds, which occasionally puts them at odds with vegetable gardeners.
At a glance
- Scientific name
- Zonotrichia atricapilla
- Length
- 5.9 to 7.1 in (15 to 18 cm)
- Wingspan
- 9.4 in (24 cm)
- Weight
- 1.1 to 1.2 oz (30 to 33 g)
- Range
- Breeds in Alaska and western Canada; winters along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to Baja California and inland to parts of the Southwest
- Favorite foods
- Seeds, buds, flowers and fruit; white millet, sunflower hearts and black oil sunflower at feeders
- Best feeder
- Ground feeder or low platform beside a hedge or brush pile
- At feeders
- Roughly late September through April on the Pacific slope
If you feed birds anywhere on the Pacific slope, the Golden-crowned Sparrow is one of your winter fixtures. Flocks arrive in September and October, spend the cold months working the ground under feeders and along hedge bottoms, and leave for the north in April, often a couple of weeks after the White-crowned Sparrows they have been mixing with.
In spring an adult is easy: a large gray-faced sparrow with a black crown split by a bright yellow forehead patch. In November it can be genuinely difficult, because young birds and worn adults may show almost no yellow at all and look like a plain brown sparrow with a smudged head.
That is the real problem this page needs to solve, along with the practical one: a bird that feeds on the ground in flocks needs a ground setup, not another hanging feeder.
How to identify a Golden-crowned Sparrow#
A Golden-crowned is a large, long-tailed sparrow, 5.9 to 7.1 in (15 to 18 cm), about the size of a White-crowned Sparrow and built the same way: full-chested, small-headed, with a fairly short conical bill.
A breeding adult has a broad black crown divided down the middle by a patch of bright golden yellow that runs from the bill back over the forehead and often fades to dull gold toward the rear of the crown. The face, throat and breast are plain gray to grayish-brown with no streaking. The back is brown with dark streaks, and there are two thin white wingbars.
The bill is a useful, underused mark. On a Golden-crowned it is dusky: dark gray on the upper mandible with a paler, often pinkish-gray lower mandible. It never looks like the clean bubblegum pink or orange bill of a White-crowned.
Winter adults and first-winter birds
This is where people get stuck. From fall through midwinter, adults are duller, the black crown edges become brownish, and the yellow can be reduced to a muted wash on the forehead. First-winter birds are plainer still: a brown, faintly striped crown with a dull yellowish smudge at the front, sometimes so faint you need good light to see it at all.
On a dull bird, work through three things in order. Is there any yellow, however faint, at the front of the crown? Are the crown stripes blurred and brown rather than crisp? Is the bill dusky rather than bright pink or orange? Three yes answers make it a Golden-crowned. A first-winter White-crowned Sparrow has cleanly defined tan and dark brown crown stripes, a pale eyebrow that reaches the bill, and a bright pinkish or orange bill.
Confusion species
| Bird | Shares | How to separate it |
|---|---|---|
| White-crowned Sparrow (adult) | Size, shape, gray face, winter flocks | Bold black-and-white striped crown, no yellow, bright pink to orange bill |
| White-crowned Sparrow (first winter) | Dull striped head, plain gray breast | Crisp tan-and-brown crown stripes, pale eyebrow reaching the bill, bright pink or orange bill |
| White-throated Sparrow | Head stripes, yellow in the face | Sharp white throat patch, yellow spot between eye and bill rather than on the crown; scarce in the West. See White-throated Sparrow |
| House Sparrow (female) | Plain brown, feeder flocks | Thicker pale bill, buffy stripe behind the eye, chunkier and shorter-tailed, no crown pattern |
| Fox Sparrow (Sooty) | Large ground sparrow in the same flocks | Heavily spotted breast, dark chocolate upperparts, no crown pattern. See Fox Sparrow |
| Dark-eyed Junco | Ground flocks, gray head | Solid gray hood, white outer tail feathers, pale pink bill, smaller |
Check the bill on dull birds
Yellow can vanish on a young or worn Golden-crowned Sparrow, but the dusky gray bill does not change. A dull large sparrow with a dark-topped grayish bill and a blurry brown crown is a Golden-crowned; a bright pink or orange bill points to a White-crowned. More head-to-head comparisons are in the sparrow ID guide.
Range and feeder timing#
Golden-crowned Sparrows breed in shrubby alpine and subalpine habitat and coastal scrub across Alaska, the Yukon and British Columbia, in willow, alder and dwarf birch above or beside treeline. It is a small breeding range for such a familiar winter bird.
In winter they occupy the Pacific slope from southern British Columbia through Washington, Oregon and California to Baja California, with smaller numbers inland into Nevada, Arizona and occasionally farther east. Anywhere on the coast from Vancouver to San Diego, this is a common yard bird from fall to spring.
The season runs roughly late September to late April, and Golden-crowns tend to linger into spring slightly later than White-crowns do. Late April is often when the yellow crowns are brightest and the song is most frequent, which makes the end of the season the best time to identify them. In the Pacific Northwest and coastal California they overlap almost exactly with the junco season.
Winter site fidelity is strong. Individual birds return to the same small wintering areas year after year, and the same flock members turn up together, which means the birds under your feeder this January are quite likely to be the same individuals as last January.
What Golden-crowned Sparrows eat#
Seeds dominate the winter diet: grasses, weeds, and whatever falls from feeders. They also take fruit, and, unusually among feeder sparrows, a substantial amount of plant growth: buds, flowers and fresh green shoots.
That last habit is why gardeners sometimes complain about them. Flocks will crop young greens, pea shoots, brassica seedlings and flower buds in coastal gardens through the winter. If it becomes a real problem, floating row cover over seedling beds solves it without harming anything; poisons and repellents are not an appropriate answer for a native bird.
During the northern summer the diet shifts heavily to insects and spiders, and nestlings are fed almost entirely on animal food. As with most feeder birds, the insect side of the equation is supported by plantings rather than by seed, which is the argument in native plants for birds.
The feeder setup that works#
Golden-crowns are ground foragers. They will hop onto a wide tray, but they will not hang on a tube.
- A ground feeder tray or a swept patch of bare ground within one short flight of a hedge or brush pile.
- A low platform feeder if the ground stays soaked through a coastal winter.
- White proso millet as the staple; it also suits the juncos and White-crowns in the same flock.
- Sunflower hearts for the birds that want more fat and less hull work.
- Black oil sunflower, which this species is big enough to open comfortably.
- A shallow water source; coastal flocks use bird baths heavily even in wet weather.
Do not overcomplicate it. A wide, thin scatter of millet on bare ground next to a shrub will hold a Golden-crowned flock better than any feeder you can buy, provided the cover is there. That relationship between cover and ground feeding is covered in brush piles.
Wet ground and dense flocks are a disease risk
Pacific coast winters keep ground seed damp, and damp seed under a crowded sparrow flock is how salmonellosis outbreaks start. Scatter small amounts, shift the patch every couple of weeks, scrub trays weekly, and stop feeding temporarily if you see sick birds; see sick bird at feeder. Keep cats indoors, since ground-feeding sparrows are the birds they catch most often.
Song and behavior#
The song is three clear whistled notes descending in pitch, often written as oh dear me. It is one of the most recognizable bird sounds on the West Coast, and birds sing on winter mornings as well as in spring, which is unusual and useful.
The song picked up folk names during the Klondike gold rush, when prospectors heard it as no gold here, and it has also been called the weary Willie song. Whatever you hear in it, once you have learned the three descending whistles you will detect this species long before you see it.
Behaviorally they are unremarkable in the best way: flocks of five to thirty birds, feeding on the ground, hopping and scratching lightly through litter, retreating into hedges when disturbed and filtering back out within a minute. They mix freely with juncos, White-crowned Sparrows, Song Sparrows and Sooty Fox Sparrows, so a good Golden-crowned patch is usually a good sparrow patch generally.
Nesting#
Nesting happens far from any feeder, in northern alpine and coastal shrub. The nest is a bulky cup of twigs, grass, moss, leaves and lichen lined with fine grass and feathers, placed on the ground or very low in a dense shrub.
Clutches typically hold 3 to 5 pale greenish or bluish eggs with reddish-brown spotting. Incubation runs roughly 11 to 14 days and the young leave the nest about 9 to 11 days after hatching. One brood a year is standard in a short northern season.
Population and conservation#
Golden-crowned Sparrows are common and their populations appear broadly stable, with no current conservation designation of concern. They are one of the species that has done reasonably well alongside suburban development on the Pacific coast, where hedges, gardens and feeders provide good winter habitat.
The main yard hazards are the ordinary ones. Outdoor cats take a heavy toll on a bird that spends the winter foraging on the ground, and window collisions kill birds moving through gardens; the fixes are in cats and birds and window strikes.
Count them, they are worth counting
Because Golden-crowns show such strong winter site fidelity, a yard where you record them each season builds a genuinely useful local record. Winter feeder counts are the main way this species is tracked, and joining a project is easy: see citizen science for feeder watchers.
A Golden-crowned Sparrow setup that works#
- Start scattering white millet on the ground or a low tray in late September.
- Keep dense cover, a hedge or brush pile, within about 15 ft (4.5 m) of the feeding patch.
- Add sunflower hearts or black oil sunflower for the larger sparrows in the flock.
- Move the feeding patch regularly and clean trays weekly through a damp coastal winter.
- Cover vegetable seedlings with row cover rather than trying to drive the flock off.
- Learn the three descending whistles. You will find far more of these birds by ear than by eye.
Frequently asked questions#
How do I tell a Golden-crowned Sparrow from a White-crowned Sparrow?
On adults, the crown: Golden-crowned has a black crown with a yellow forehead patch, White-crowned has bold black and white stripes and no yellow. On dull winter and immature birds, use the bill. A Golden-crowned's bill is dusky gray above and paler below, while a White-crowned's is bright pink or orange. Golden-crowned head stripes are also blurrier and browner.
Why does my Golden-crowned Sparrow have no gold?
Because of age and season. First-winter birds and worn fall adults may show only a faint yellowish wash at the front of a plain brown crown, and sometimes almost nothing. The yellow brightens through late winter and is at its most obvious in April, just before the birds head north. Judge dull birds on bill color and head pattern instead.
When are Golden-crowned Sparrows at feeders?
Roughly late September through late April along the Pacific coast, from British Columbia to Baja California, with smaller numbers inland in the Southwest. They often stay a little later in spring than White-crowned Sparrows do. In summer they are gone, breeding in alpine and coastal shrub in Alaska and western Canada.
What do Golden-crowned Sparrows eat?
Mostly seeds in winter, plus fruit, buds, flowers and fresh green shoots, and largely insects during the breeding season. At feeders they take white proso millet, sunflower hearts and black oil sunflower, almost always from the ground or a low tray rather than from hanging feeders.
Are Golden-crowned Sparrows a problem for gardens?
Sometimes. Winter flocks crop young greens, pea shoots, brassica seedlings and flower buds in coastal gardens. The practical answer is a physical barrier: floating row cover or netting over seedling beds until the plants are established. Repellents and poisons are not an appropriate response to a native bird doing what it normally does.