Arriving in mid-fall to all areas of New England, the white-throated sparrow is a very familiar bird in Granby backyards, especially if bird feeders are up and there are protective thickets nearby. Local bird aficionado John Weeks reports seeing them lately at Holcomb Farm and McLean Game Refuge in Granby, at the Southwick Wildlife Management Area and at Rosedale Farm in Simsbury. Weeks notes that they mingle well with all the other sparrow species.
A medium-sized bird, white-throats are five to seven inches long. Their upper parts are streaked, under parts clear gray. Their heads have black and white stripes with a “sharply defined white throat patch and dark bill.” (Audubon Society Field Guide)
White-throats come in two color forms: white-crowned and tan-crowned. The two varieties continue to exist because the birds almost always mate with a bird of the opposite color! Also, although they look nothing alike and are not closely related, the white-throats occasionally mate with dark-eyed juncos, producing grayish birds with white outer tail feathers.
White-throats usually make a nest of grass, rootlets and moss on the ground or near it on low-hanging tree branches. It often means re-building a nest since these locations are readily available to predators. Eventually the four or five pale greenish/bluish brown-spotted eggs successfully hatch and join flocks of dozens of white-throats foraging together on the ground near thickets, kicking backwards with both feet simultaneously. Their scratching action is quite audible. Millet is their favorite food, but black oil sunflower seeds are also popular. In the mild weather, they will eat several kinds of berries and even insects in the summer. In the winter, they gather in the evening in dense thickets, their flocking call almost as evocative as their easily recognizable whistled song.
The white-throats’ attraction to artificial light has earned them the nickname of “super-colliders,” due to their frequent crashing into well lit buildings at dusk. They also have many avian predators, especially sharp-shinned hawks and screech owls in our area. Luckily, their reproduction numbers and successful feeding counter these unfortunate circumstances.