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In the southwestern U.S., winter wouldn't be winter without the handsome White-crowned Sparrow. White-crowned sparrows breed in arctic tundra and western mountains and they spend the winter at lower elevations in the west and across the southern U.S. and Mexico. White-crowned sparrows arrive at Four Seasons in mid-October, where they move in flocks through the bushes and are usually the commonest species at our seed feeders. The smart black-and-white head, pale beak, and unstreaked gray breast make it one of the surest sparrow identifications. Immature birds have brown crowns (no black or white), and both adult and immature plumages occur in about equal numbers in winter flocks. White-crowned sparrows sing year round and their whistled songs are a common sound of winter at Four Seasons. Male white-crowned sparrows do most of the singing, but sometimes females sing a quieter and more variable song. Male white- crowned sparrows learn their songs during the first few months of life from their singing neighbors and typically breed close to where they were raised, so song dialects have developed over time. Alaskan white-crowned sparrows migrate about 2,600 miles to winter in Southern California, so our birds are likely from Alaska. The oldest recorded white-crowned sparrow lived in here in California and was at least 13 years four months old. Don't tell anyone – the white-crowned sparrows at Four Seasons may not be 55+! ~ Steve Edelman Birding CLUB Bird of the Month FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2018 59 Adult White-crowned Sparrow By Garth McElroy/VIREO The Four Seasons Birding Club welcomes beginning and experienced birders to start or hone bird identification skills. The club's main activity is a monthly birdwalk along Four Seasons' beautiful nature trails, which follow native riparian woodlands. We also take field trips to local birding hot spots, discuss backyard bird feeding, and share information on unusual species and behaviors. The club keeps track of all bird sightings at Four Seasons and we compile our observations on a bird list. To date, we have documented 66 bird species at Four Seasons! The most recent addition to the list was also our first member "rare bird report." Mike Lilly observed an American Kestrel near the corner of Diamond Peak and Stellar Peak in early January and realized this species was not yet on our club bird list. So he took the picture to the right to document the club's 66th species! In the birding world, the first observation of a new species in a given area is called a "first record," so Mike's observation was Four Seasons' first record for American Kestrel. Finding a first record is the Holy Grail for "serious" birders, who scour their local counties for county first records of various species. The way to become a birding big shot is to find state and North American first records, which must be reviewed by state and national "checklist committees" before the species is added to official lists. The Four Seasons Birding Club meets on the first Saturday of each month at 8 am in the Lodge RCN Lobby, talk about birding, then go on our bird walk directly from the Lodge for about an hour. Bring your binoculars or just come to a meeting and ask about birding gear. Sometimes our schedule changes, so before coming to a meeting and to receive club communications, email Steve Edelman at steve.h.edelman@gmail.com. ~ Steve Edelman Birding Club member Mike Lilly captured this photo of an adult male American Kestrel, North America's smallest and most common falcon, to document Four Seasons' first record of the species

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