Golden-crowned Sparrow

About the Golden-crowned Sparrow

The Golden-crowned Sparrow is a bird of the Pacific coast -- it breeds in the willow scrub of Alaska and western Canada and winters from Washington down into Baja. In Texas it is a genuine rarity, a bird that turns up only every few winters when one drifts far off course and settles in with a flock of White-crowned Sparrows.

It is a big, long-tailed Zonotrichia sparrow, and the field mark is right there in the name: a wedge of gold on the forecrown, framed in winter by dusky brown rather than the crisp black of breeding dress. First-winter birds can be subtle, showing just a hint of yellow above the bill, which is exactly why rare-bird hunters grind through big sparrow flocks one bird at a time.

This individual spent time at the bird blind at Inks Lake State Park in Burnet County, where I photographed it on January 20, 2025. A comfortable blind, seed on the ground, and a state-level rarity walking around in good light -- Hill Country birding does not get much better.

Chasing a stakeout bird like this one rewards early arrival. Rarities often make one predictable appearance in the first calm hour of the morning and then vanish into the brush for the day.