White-throated Sparrow

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology sums it up nicely: "Crisp markings make the White-throated Sparrow an attractive bird as well as a hopping, flying anatomy lesson. There's the black eye stripe, the white crown and supercilium ("eyebrow"), the yellow lores on the head, the white throat bordered by a black whisker, or malar stripe."

White-throated Sparrow

These sparrows breed mostly in the forests of Canada, but winter across most of the eastern and southern United States and California. In the Lehigh Valley and vicinity, White-throated Sparrows generally are seen from October through April.

The White-throated Sparrow is a large sparrow with a prominent bill, rounded head, long legs and long tail. Besides the notable white bib, "White-throats" are brown above and gray below.

White-throats stay near the ground, scratching through leaves looking for food, often in flocks. You may see them low in bushes as well as eating fresh buds in spring.

During colder months, White-throated Sparrows mainly eat seeds of grasses and weeds, including ragweed and buckwheat, as well as fruits of sumac, grape, cranberry, mountain ash, rose, blueberry, blackberry and dogwood. They will eat millet and black oil sunflower seeds at backyard feeders. In summer they eat large quantities of insects. 

For a nest, the female selects a depression in the ground amid dense vegetation and adds moss. She then builds the sides with grass, twigs, wood chips and pine needles. The nest is hidden from above by leaves and visible from only one side. She may lay one or two broods per season. Eggs are very pale blue or greenish blue and speckled.

If a ground nest was robbed by a predator, the female White-throat may attempt a second nest in a conifer up to 15 feet high. 

Not related and looking nothing alike, the White-throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco may mate and produce a hybrid looking like a grayish, dully marked White-throat with while outer tail feathers!

The White-throat's call is a distinctive wavering whistle of Oh-sweet-Canada-Canada-Canada. On a cold winter's day, listen for their song. You just may feel a little warmer.