Zonotrichia leucophiris
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Adult.— Crown black, with a broad white stripe through the centre, and a white line extending back from the eye; no yellow before the eye; sides of head and back of neck brownish-gray; back, wings, and tail brown; wing-bars white; under parts gray; no well-marked white throat-patch; bill reddish-brown.
Immature.— Crown reddish-brown; stripe through centre pale grayish-brown; otherwise as in adult.
The White-crowned Sparrow is a migrant in May, and in late September and October; rare in eastern Massachusetts and in the Hudson Valley, not uncommon at times in Berkshire County and in the White Mountains. It is fond of the same places that the White-throated Sparrow frequents, thickets and undergrowth, the edges of roads, and weedy patches.
Its song is too rarely heard; it begins with pure sweet notes that suggest the Meadowlark’s whistle, or a Vesper Sparrow singing louder than usual, and continues with notes that recall the Black-throated Green Warbler; the whole performance is quite different from the song of the White-throat.
An adult bird is distinguished from its relative the White-throat by the absence of yellow before the eye, by the pure ashy throat, which lacks the square white throat-patch, and by the different aspect of the crown,— the broadest white stripe is in the centre, and there is no broad stripe of white over the eye. The shape of the head, moreover, is different and characteristic: the back of the head seems a little higher than the crown. In fall the immature bird must be distinguished by the cleaner look about the sides of the head and throat; everything is ashy-gray, except the crown. The bill in both adults and young is reddish-brown.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)