Hi Matt and all,

Wow, this White-crowned Sparrow information you provided is quite
interesting. And looking at Birds of Washington, I see that gambelii is
indeed the race of White-crown expected in winter. But, you know, things
have either drastically changed here in the west Puget Sound area or
wintering White-crowns were not studied here. I am so glad to hear that
folks over at the UW are studying wintering pugetensis now. Maybe
studying wintering gambelii might be in order too.

All I ever find over here in winter, in the isolated little areas where
White-crowns persist and over-winter, is pugetensis. I don't recall ever
finding gambelii in winter. About the only times I see gambelii are a
brief migratory window in mid April to mid May and then I know I get a
few as fall migrants. That's it.

I do think even the wintering pugetensis that I find could still indeed
be considered migratory and not sedentary. It is not as though I'm
finding these wintering flocks at known spots for the singing
territorial males that we are all enjoying at this time. They obviously
have moved from somewhere.

I'm glad you piped-in on this subject, Matt. I am now very curious as to
this "new" notion that more pugetensis are wintering here.

Cool stuff.

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com