[Tweeters] Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows

[via Tweeters]

Hi Tweeters,

                It's migration time and I've never had so many White-crowned
Sparrows in my back yard.  Right now there are probably 10 scampering around
under my feeders, over by the water, under the bushes.  They are a little
hard to count!  I'm guessing most of these are the kind of sparrow we
normally associate with eastern Washington-Gambel's WCSP.  The song sounds
distinctly different from the Puget Sound White-crowned.  Otherwise I have
some trouble distinguishing between the two subspecies.  Right now I am
going by how much brown is on the flanks of the bird.  Many of these
visitors are almost completely gray-breasted.  I understand that the beaks
of the Gambel's are supposed to be more orange.  This is a little harder to
spot.  And to me, it seems like the white stripes on the crown are a bit
more pronounced.  I'd be happy to hear how the rest of you tell these two
subspecies apart.  Happy birding,  Charlotte Byers, Edmonds
byers345 at comcast.net <mailto:byers345 at comcast.net>  

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