Fun Facts About White-crowned Sparrows
- A Tucson snow-bird, white-crowned sparrows arrive in the sonoran desert as early as late September and stay through late May.
- White-crowned Sparrows show loyalty to their winter territories and are likely to return to the same areas each year.
- Male White-crowned Sparrows can actually be bilingual, learning and using distinct song dialects from their home territory and a bordering one.
- White-crowned Sparrows have been known to migrate over 2600 miles from Alaska to California. While migrating north in the spring, their average travel distance is about 70 miles per day.
- During the winter, a White-crowned Sparrow’s body contains about 3 grams of fat of which ½ is used up at night and must be replaced everyday.
- Through the analysis of bird banding records, the average life span of a White-crowned Sparrow is thought to be around 16 months while the longest known lifespan was just over 13 years.