Occurrence of the White-Throated Sparrow in the San Joaquin Valley, California
Occurrence of the White-throated Sparrow in the San Joaquin Valley, California
During a day's field work in the Porterville district of Tulare County, California, in the fall of 1930, a sparrow with conspicuous whitish color on the chin was seen in company with migrating fox sparrows. It was watched with much interest for several minutes while feeding on the ground with the fox sparrows, which birds apparently “had a grudge” against the odd one and continually made advances when it approached too closely to any one of them. I was not certain as to my identification of this bird at sight and collected it for positive proof.
This specimen, number 748 in my collection, was an immature female Whitethroated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) and was taken on October 12, 1930. The exact locality of the occurrence was about ten miles east of the town of Porterville, in the willow association adjacent to the Tule River. It was interesting to note that the bird was in the company of fox sparrows and not with other zonotrichias, as seems to be the general rule when White-throated Sparrows have been recorded previously in California.
J. Stuart Rowley
Alhambra, California, November 23, 1930
