There are 17 (plus or minus) subspecies of Fox Sparrow lumped
into 4 main types: Red Fox Sparrow, Slate-colored Fox Sparrow,
Sooty Fox Sparrow and Thick-billed Fox (names after Zink) all
of which are very likely candidates for splitting.

The great majority of Fox Sparrows that winter in western
Washington fall into the Sooty-form. This form breeds in
coastal British Columbia and Alaska with a few into the Olympics.
The breeding Cascade/Eastern Washington form is Slate-colored
which winters mostly in Southern California and Arizona.
Putative Red Fox Sparrows are rare winter vistors to the west
coast. Thick-billed is restricted to the central Oregon
Cascades and point south.

Wintering Sooty Fox Sparrows sing bits and pieces of song all the
time and routinely sing full songs on warmish, sunny days. It is
a very pretty song with lots of "whips" and "zzlurps". The bits
and pieces can be mistaken for something else and are probably
often overlooked or counted as another species.

Greg Gillson has extensive discussion regarding Fox Sparrows
at: http://thebirdguide.com/fox/fox.htm

and I've been looking at Coastal Sooties and have posted some of
that work at:
http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/observatory/sparrow/fosp.html

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Subject: Hadlock Fox Sparrows
From: "MaryK" <CelloBird AT seanet.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:59:42 -0800

Forgot to mention in my previous post that at least two of the Fox Sparrows
I saw were singing! Watched one as it was doing its "chunk" calls, another
FOSP called back, first bird sang a bit, second one answered. What a pretty
song! Those guys breed in Cent'l and E WA, right?? I'd like to hear 'em
sing in the springtime. Isn't singing kind of odd for FOSP this time of
year??

Mary

Mary Klein
Bremerton WA
CelloBird AT seanet.com
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--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

Nobody EXPECTS the Spanish Inquisition....
- Cardinal Ximinez