white-crowned sparrow

[hwahyt-kround, wahyt-]

noun

1. a North American sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, having black and white stripes on the head.

Word History and Origins

Origin of white-crowned sparrow¹

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

A white-crowned sparrow from Washington state sounds very different from its Californian cousins.

From Scientific American

The white-crowned sparrow, which has distinctive white and black head stripes, is found across much of the US and Canada, where its songs have been widely studied.

From BBC

“What they’ll do, because they are curious, is to pop up for a second. Even the white-crowned sparrow, which we don’t have during the summer, for a sparrow they are quite colorful.”

From Washington Times

She hears a chirp and immediately identifies it as a white-crowned sparrow.

From New York Times

In Washington, some of the birds most at risk in a 3 degrees Celsius warming include the rufous hummingbird, the white-crowned sparrow and the Swainson’s thrush.

From Seattle Times