White-throated Sparrow: two morphs, one double-scratch
The stripe color is not age and not sex, and the way this bird kicks backwards with both feet decides where you should put its seed.
The short answer
- White and tan head stripes are two lifelong morphs, not sexes or age classes. Both sexes come in both forms and pairs are almost always one of each.
- The double-scratch, a backward kick with both feet at once, is how this bird finds food. Give it something to kick and it will stay in your yard.
- Millet is the top food, with sunflower in the shell and hearts taken readily. Scatter it in leaf litter under a shrub rather than putting it in a clean dish.
- Yellow spots in front of the eye and a sharply outlined white throat separate it from White-crowned Sparrow, which has a pink or orange bill and no throat patch.
- It is a winter bird across the East and Midwest, arriving through October and leaving in late April, and it sings the whistled Canada song right through the cold months.
Two White-throated Sparrows are scratching under your feeder. One has crisp black and white stripes on the crown and a bright yellow spot in front of the eye. The other has softer tan and brown stripes and a duller yellow spot. They are the same age, and they may well be the same sex. That is the interesting part of this bird, and it changes how you watch a winter flock.
Two kinds of the same sparrow#
The white-striped and tan-striped forms are lifelong morphs, fixed by an inherited difference rather than by season, age or sex. A bird hatched tan-striped stays tan-striped. Both males and females occur in both forms.
The morphs are not just paint. White-striped birds are the more aggressive and the more vocal: they sing more, defend territory harder, and pursue mates more actively. Tan-striped birds are quieter and put more effort into feeding nestlings. And the two forms almost always pair with each other rather than with their own kind, so nearly every breeding pair is one white-striped bird and one tan-striped bird.
Young birds of both morphs are duller through their first autumn, with muddier stripes and a less clean throat, so an October bird that fits neither description is probably a juvenile.
Not a White-crowned, not a Song Sparrow#
Three lookalikes, and each one is settled by a single mark.
| Species | Throat | Lores (in front of the eye) | Bill | Breast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White-throated Sparrow | Bright white, sharply outlined against gray | Yellow spot | Dull gray | Plain gray, unstreaked |
| White-crowned Sparrow | Plain gray, no patch | No yellow | Pink, orange or yellowish, obvious | Plain gray, unstreaked |
| Song Sparrow | Whitish, poorly defined | No yellow | Gray, stouter | Heavily streaked with a central dark spot |
| House Sparrow male | Black bib | No yellow | Thick, black in summer | Plain gray, unstreaked |
The yellow lores are the fastest single mark and they are visible even on a dull juvenile. The white throat is the second. If you can see neither because the bird is facing away, check the back: White-throated Sparrows are warm reddish brown above with dark streaks, which is a different tone from the grayer, colder White-crowned.
The double-scratch, and why it decides your setup#
Watch one feeding and you will see the move. The bird hops forward, then flicks both feet backwards at the same instant, a quick two-footed shuffle that drags a layer of leaves behind it and uncovers what was underneath. Then it looks down and picks. Towhees do it, several sparrows do it, and juncos mostly do not, which makes it a genuine field mark in a mixed ground flock.
This is not a quirk. It is the bird's whole foraging strategy, and it tells you exactly what to provide.
- Give it something to kick. A 2 to 3 in layer of fallen leaves under a shrub, with millet scattered into it, is more attractive to this species than a swept tray of the same seed. The bird gets to use its main behavior, and the seed stays spread out instead of being monopolised.
- Bare paving is the worst surface. On a clean patio, a double-scratch does nothing and the seed skitters away. If paving is all you have, put down a shallow tray with an inch of coarse wood chip or dry leaves in it and scatter the seed on top.
- Stop raking under your shrubs. The leaf layer people clear away in autumn is winter foraging habitat for exactly this bird. Rake it under the shrubs rather than into a bag. More on this in native plants and cover.
- Expect them under your hanging feeders. Spilled sunflower on the ground is a large part of what a White-throated Sparrow lives on in a suburban yard, which is one of the few good things about seed waste.
What to put out#
| Food | How well it works | Energy density |
|---|---|---|
| White proso millet | Top Top-tier favorite | 378 kcal per 100 g |
| Black oil sunflower (in shell) | Yes Eats readily | 584 kcal per 100 g |
| Sunflower hearts / chips | Yes Eats readily | 584 kcal per 100 g |
| Cracked corn | Yes Eats readily | 365 kcal per 100 g |
| Safflower seed | Some Takes occasionally | 517 kcal per 100 g |
| Nyjer (thistle) seed | Some Takes occasionally | 515 kcal per 100 g |
| Striped sunflower (in shell) | Rare Rarely takes it | 584 kcal per 100 g |
| Shelled peanuts (halves or hearts) | Rare Rarely takes it | 567 kcal per 100 g |
| Suet cake (rendered fat blend) | Rare Rarely takes it | 740 kcal per 100 g |
| Dried mealworms | Rare Rarely takes it | 500 kcal per 100 g |
| Fruit and jelly (orange, grape) | Rare Rarely takes it | 180 kcal per 100 g |
Skip for this species: Peanuts (in shell), Nectar.
Millet is the standout, and it is the cheapest common seed there is, so a winter flock of these costs very little to keep. Black oil sunflower and hearts come next and have the advantage of serving the rest of the yard at the same time. Cracked corn works but should be put out in small daily amounts because it molds quickly in damp: see moldy seed.
A setup that works, with quantities:
- Choose a spot within about 8 ft of a hedge, brush pile or dense shrub. This species will not feed far from a place it can vanish into.
- Put down a low tray no more than 12 in high, or use bare ground with a leaf layer. A ground feeder with a mesh floor drains and stays cleaner than a solid one.
- Scatter about 1 cup of millet over 6 to 8 square feet for a flock of six to ten birds. Spread beats piled, because a pile is defensible and a scatter is not.
- Top up once in the morning. Put out only what is gone by dusk, which keeps rats and mice out of the equation.
- Rake and move the feeding patch a few feet every couple of weeks through the winter so droppings and hulls do not build up in one place. Ground stations need this more than hanging ones do: bird diseases at feeders explains why.
Behavior worth watching#
Flock size is usually 4 to 15, often loosely mixed with juncos, tree sparrows and cardinals on the same patch of ground. They arrive at a feeding area by dropping into the shrub first, sitting for a moment, then hopping out into the open, and they retreat the same way at any alarm.
There is no caching. Everything found is eaten on the spot. Dominance within the flock is real but low-key: a displaced bird hops a foot away and carries on. Against juncos they hold their own, and against a mourning dove they simply give ground, which is another argument for spreading seed rather than concentrating it.
Timing runs heavily to the first ninety minutes of daylight and the last hour before dark, with scattered activity in between. In deep cold the dawn session is longer and the birds feed almost continuously.
Where and when#
They breed across the boreal forest of Canada, the northern Great Lakes states and northern New England, in young conifer regrowth, bog edges and clearings. That is where the whistled song belongs, though you will hear it in your yard in winter too.
Autumn passage runs from mid-September, and wintering birds settle into the East, Southeast, Ohio Valley and lower Midwest through October. A small but regular population winters on the West Coast, which is why a White-throated Sparrow in a California yard is notable rather than impossible. Departure is late, from early April into the first days of May, and the singing in late April as they get ready to leave is the best of the year.
If you are setting up for the season they arrive into, fall feeding covers the timing and winter feeding covers the months they stay. For where this species sits against everything else on the ground, the food preference chart puts them side by side.
Frequently asked questions#
Why do some White-throated Sparrows have white stripes and some tan?
They are two color morphs that a bird keeps for life, set by an inherited difference rather than by age or sex. Both males and females occur in both forms. The morphs also differ in behavior: white-striped birds tend to be more aggressive and sing more, while tan-striped birds do more of the work of feeding nestlings. Pairs are almost always one of each, so a white-striped bird takes a tan-striped mate and vice versa.
What is the difference between a White-throated and a White-crowned Sparrow?
Three things. The throat: a White-throated Sparrow has a bright white bib sharply outlined against gray, while a White-crowned Sparrow has a plain gray throat with no patch. The lores: White-throated has a yellow spot between the eye and the bill, White-crowned does not. The bill: White-crowned is pink, orange or yellowish and stands out, White-throated is dull gray. White-crowned also carries its crown feathers in a peak.
What is the double-scratch?
A foraging move. The bird hops forward, then kicks both feet backwards at the same time in a quick shuffle, dragging leaf litter behind it and exposing seeds and invertebrates underneath. Towhees and several sparrows do it, and juncos largely do not, so it is a useful thing to watch for. It also tells you what to offer: this bird is built to work loose material, not to pick seed off a bare, hard surface.
What do White-throated Sparrows eat at a feeder?
White proso millet is the top food by a clear margin. Black oil sunflower and sunflower hearts are both taken readily, cracked corn readily, and safflower and nyjer occasionally. They will take a few mealworms and a little suet crumbled on the ground in hard weather. They will not use a hanging tube or a suet cage, so everything has to be on the ground or on a low tray.
Do White-throated Sparrows sing in winter?
Yes, and it is one of the pleasures of an eastern winter yard. The thin whistled song, usually written as Old Sam Peabody Peabody or Oh sweet Canada Canada, is heard quietly from wintering flocks from midwinter onward and builds through March and April before they leave. A version with a different, doubled ending note spread eastwards across Canada in recent decades and is now widely reported well outside where it started.
Sources and further reading
- White-throated Sparrow Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds Morphs, measurements, range, song and foraging
- White-crowned Sparrow Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds Comparison species field marks
- Feeding Birds Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch Millet preference and ground-feeding presentation
- White-throated Sparrow National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds Winter distribution and habitat