Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

During Northern California’s summer months, white-crowned sparrows concentrate in coastal chaparral and scrub, but they foray inland during the winter, when I often see them foraging the field fringes near my home. They’re commonly seen in the company of golden-crowned sparrows, another coronated bird belonging to the same Zonotrichia genus. Zonotrichia translates as “hair band”; it describes the sparrow’s bold head stripes, but for this child of the 80s it resonates in another way, too. When excited, white-crowned sparrows chip loudly and flex their crown feathers into an impressive pompadour, calling to mind “hair band” frontmen like Vince Neil or Sebastian Bach. Come to think of it, maybe glam rock started with David Lee Roth admiring agitated white-crowned sparrows on a coastal California bluff? That’s the alternative history I’m running with, at least.

I created this color column based on sparrows of “the Pacific group,” two closely related white-crowned subspecies, Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli and Z. l. pugetensis. This subspecies pair is easily distinguished from more eastern subspecies; Pacific group adults are a little more brown overall and their eponymous white-striping is dulled a bit, more of a morning fog color than a bright white; it appears here as the fourth band from the top. That foggy variation is especially appropriate for West Coast birds. 🖖©🌊🤙🏾

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.