Maryland Wildlife: White-throated Sparrow
(Zonotrichia albicollis)
 

This songbird, noted for its white throat patch and a yellow spot between the bill and eye, is a member of the sparrow family. It is also well known for its song of the late fall and winter which sounds like “Old Sam Peabody Peabody” or “Oh Sweet Canada, Canada’ which both sexes sing. The distinct call song of “Tseet” which the bird sings when searching for other sparrows is a part of the sounds of autumn. The White-throated Sparrow is one native sparrow that may be found in the suburbs and urban areas in the fall and winter. 

Range in Maryland: White-throated Sparrows migrate from the North to Maryland in late October and stay until late April to early May. These sparrows can sometimes be found in Garrett County Maryland other times of the year.

Description: Besides the distinctive white throat patch and yellow spot between the eye and bill, the bird is one of the larger sparrows - about 7” in length. Its tail is somewhat forked. The bill is blackish in color. Legs are pinkish. Breast feathers are gray. A similar species, the White-crowned Sparrow, has a pink bill, and lacks the white throat and yellow face spot. These birds are polymorphic, meaning adults that have white brown and tan head stripes seem to always mate with those with black and white head stripes. Indiana State University has an excellent web site on this subject at http://www.whitethroatedsparrow.org

Habitat: White-throated Sparrows prefer open deciduous or mixed deciduous-evergreen woods, thickets, shrubs and brush piles in residential areas. Leafy ground within or near woods are key habitat requirements in the fall and winter.

Food Habits: These sparrows forage primarily on the ground. They prefer to scratch in leaves for insects and seeds. White-throated Sparrows are noted for their noisy scratching. They will come readily to bird feeders and also ground feed with a seed preference for sunflower and white millet. In the early spring these birds will also consume buds from shrubs and trees.

Additional Information: Although still found abundantly in its winter range the White-throated Sparrow is declining in its breeding range in the North. Juncos and White-throated Sparrows although different species occasionally mate! The hybrid bird looks like a grayish White-throated Sparrow with Junco-like tail feathers.

Listen to the White-throated Sparrow

Nearly 5,000 people in the mid 1990’s turned their backyards through out North America into science labs. They spread a variety of birdseed out, then watched from their windows to see which food birds liked best: black-oil sunflower seed, white millet or red milo.

The Experiment
The mission of the experiment was to turn bird watchers into “citizen scientists”. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology based in Ithaca, New York coordinated the Seed Preference Test with support from the National Science Foundation.

Approximately a half a million birds visited squares of cardboard that served as bird feeders for the experiment. Data was gathered on the feeding habits of more than 30 different bird species.

Scientists had studied the food preferences of wild birds but in just a few locations. The Seed Preference Test was the first attempt to gather information on a vast geographic scale.

What did the Seed Preference Test find?
Birds that usually feed in trees – including American Gold finches, White –Breasted Nuthatches and House Finches seem to prefer sunflower seeds. Birds that are ground feeders –Juncos, Mourning Doves and many sparrow species, prefer millet. The birds that only live in western North American eat more milo than eastern species do.

The western preference for milo is interesting. Seed Preference Test data suggest that species such as Black Capped Chickadees and Mourning Doves show an East-West difference in eating habits. Western Chickadees and Mourning Doves ate less sunflower and more milo and millet than their eastern relatives. House Finches are another example of the East-West split. Eastern House Finches ate sunflower seed 85% of the time compared to 71% for Western House Finches.

These seed preference findings have left scientists with many interesting questions.

• Are Western birds generalized feeders?

• Why do Eastern birds show such a preference for black-oil sunflower seed?

• Could it even be that the habits of bird feeders are different enough in the regions of North America
  to influence the food birds chose?

Hopefully we will see additional research on these guides in the future.

Here is some general information on the seed to use
in your bird feeding if you are located in the Eastern United States.

Remember, the best way to have songbirds in your backyard
is to plant trees and shrubs to provide year round food and cover.