Zonotrichia albicollis
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) is a passerine bird of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae. It breeds in northern North America and winters in the southern United States. In 1760 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the white-throated sparrow in the second volume of his Gleanings of Natural History. He used the current English name. Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a "neat drawing in colours" supplied by the American naturalist William Bartram from Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1789 he included the white-throated sparrow. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla albicollis. The white-throated sparrow is now one of five American sparrows placed in the genus Zonotrichia that was introduced by William Swainson in 1832. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ζωνη (zōnē) meaning "band" and θριξ (thrix), τριχος (trikhos) meaning "hair". The specific epithet albicollis combines Latin albus meaning "white" with Modern Latin -collis meaning... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Akron Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Sparrow sighting in Houston on a given day, based on 2,126 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 59th most-seen of the 302 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and November–January
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Sparrow in Houston on a given day, against under 5% in May to October, the lowest months.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-throated Sparrow sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
15th of 33
Of the 33 cities where we can rate White-throated Sparrow sightings, Houston ranks 15th at about 10%. The best odds are in New York City (United States, about 60%), Philadelphia (United States, about 50%) and Baltimore (United States, about 50%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-throated Sparrow is recorded against all the birds logged in Houston (2,126 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
