Zonotrichia albicollis
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
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 |
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Sparrow sighting in Riding Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 585 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 2nd most-seen of the 181 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 90% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Sparrow in Riding Mountain National Park on a given day, against about 20% in January, the lowest month.
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.
3rd of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate White-throated Sparrow sightings, Riding Mountain National Park ranks 3rd at about 70%. The best odds are in Gros Morne National Park (Canada, about 90%) and Isle Royale National Park (United States, about 70%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-throated Sparrow is recorded against all the birds logged in Riding Mountain National Park (585 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
