ML317118101
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Immature Unknown sex - 1
Media notes
This first-winter Golden-crowned Sparrow, present since at least 1 November 2020, was here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 4 March 2021 at Cattle Call Park, Brawley, Imperial County, California.
Observation details
Although I initially missed the wintering sparrow when Dean first saw it in the dense vegetation along the river in the northwestern part of the park, I eventually caught up with it when it later came out to forage on the grass with other sparrows along the western edge of the park just north of the playground. Over time I was able to get good views and some mediocre photos of this bird foraging on the ground, but I never heard it vocalize. This was a medium-sized sparrow that was similar in overall structure to the White-crowned Sparrows with which it was associated, yet I thought it appeared just a little bit larger. The conical bill tapered from a deep base to a pointed tip along a straight culmen. I further thought the bill was not much longer than it was deep at the base, and that it would have extended backward on the face to a point near the eye, if not just behind. The forehead was weakly sloping, and the crown was gently rounded, both on a head that was comparable in relative size to those of the White-crowned Sparrows. The neck was short and inconspicuous, and the body was plump, full-chested, and with a posture that was closer to horizontal than diagonal, at least when the bird was foraging on the ground. I think the wingtips reached right about to the tips of the uppertail coverts, but I failed to notice the primary projection in the field. The tail was quite long, approximately the length of the head, neck, and body combined, and it was slim and parallel-sided, but I cannot now recall noting the shape at the tip. My views of the legs and feet were relatively brief, but my impression was that the legs were long and of unremarkable mass for a sparrow of this size. This was a generally dark brown sparrow with relatively subtle markings. I think the forehead was yellow, but I was more confident that the forecrown was washed with a deep yellow in color that also seemed to extend to some degree into the supraloral region, albeit less conspicuously. Although the head stripes on this bird were not as conspicuous as those of the White-crowned Sparrows, I nevertheless noted a relatively conspicuous median-stripe of sooty-brown that extended from near the base of the upper mandible back along either side of the crown back to the nape. The yellow color in the center of the forecrown did not appear to continue beyond the middle of the crown, but my recollection is not as good about the color that was behind it. The sides of the face were a cold, medium-brown throughout the superciliary region, the auriculars, sides of the neck, and even the lower part of the face. The result was a rather plain looking face in which the only real contrast represented the yellow in the supraloral region, an inconspicuous wedge of darker coloration extending only a short way behind the eye, and a somewhat larger and broader wedge of dark brown framing the rear terminus of the auriculars. I cannot now recall, if the submoustachial region was paler than the rest of the face, but if it was, the contrast was limited. Darker malar-stripes that separated the submoustachial region from the paler throat were sooty in color, relatively narrow, and also rather diffuse. I did think the throat was paler than the sides of the face, and my impression was that they were grayish rather than whitish or brown. The breast and sides were darker and I thought more brownish, but generally not contrasting conspicuously with the throat or even the face. On occasion, however, when the light was just right, I thought the breast, belly, and sides were somewhat paler and more grayish than the head and underparts, but even on these occasions I thought the flanks were a warm, medium to dark brown in color. I cannot ever recall seeing well either the undertail coverts or the underside of the tail on a bird that I saw exclusively as it foraged on the ground and often in grass that obscured the lowermost parts of the belly, legs, and feet. Returning to the upperparts, I thought the back and sides of the neck were about the same brown color as the face, but I cannot now recall whether the darker crown-stripes continued beyond the nape. Whereas the backs of the White-crowned Sparrows had dark stripes on a grayish background, that of the Golden-crowned Sparrow had sooty-brown stripes that were relatively narrow, but also well-defined, on a background that was a warm, medium to dark brown in color. The result was not only that this bird was darker above, but also that it was more brownish overall. I cannot now remember if I clearly saw the rump and my only recollection of the upperside of the tail was that it was rather dark and seemingly brownish. Even the wings did not contrast all that conspicuously with the upperparts. Both the greater and median coverts had well-defined, white tips that produced two wingbars that were relatively narrow as they extended straight across the upper part of the wing. I am not sure I saw the bases of the median coverts clearly, but the greater coverts had sooty-brown to blackish centers and narrow edges of cinnamon-buff that created a pattern of striping between the wingbars. The remiges were similarly marked with sooty-brown centers that contrasted with narrow, but again well-defined, edges that created a striped pattern that appeared to be similar on both the primaries and secondaries. I was less sure about the innermost secondaries, but my impression was that their pattern was much like that on the other remiges. I think the exposed primary tips were uniformly dark brown, but again, my recollection of this is a bit fuzzy now. The bill was mostly quite dark, maybe slate-gray with a darker culmen, but I thought I saw at least some dull yellow at the base of the lower mandible. My recollection is that the eyes were dark brown, seemingly even a little darker than the plumage, and the legs and maybe also the feet appeared to be a relatively dark, fleshy-orange in color.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
- ISO
- 500
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Shutter speed
- 1/500 sec
- Dimensions
- 1218 pixels x 808 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.68 MB