{"id":25463,"date":"2015-06-13T03:33:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T09:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=25463"},"modified":"2025-07-26T14:13:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T19:13:06","slug":"a-wonderful-photo-session-with-a-white-crowned-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/13\/a-wonderful-photo-session-with-a-white-crowned-sparrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonderful Photo Session with a White-crowned Sparrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-150957 size-full\" title=\"Singing adult White-crowned Sparrow at Red Rock Lakes NWR (Interior West subspecies), Montana\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825.jpg\" alt=\"Singing adult White-crowned Sparrow at Red Rock Lakes NWR (Interior West subspecies), Montana\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Singing adult White-crowned Sparrow at Red Rock Lakes NWR (Interior West subspecies) &#8211; Nikon D810, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday was bright and sunny in the Centennial Valley and after hearing this White-crowned Sparrow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/white-crowned_sparrow\/sounds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">singing<\/span><\/a> I felt like breaking out in song too.<\/p>\n<p>But I didn&#8217;t because I didn&#8217;t want to scare away the birds, peel the bark off of the aspens, or make the Elk in the area think there was an off key bull around.<\/p>\n<p>The background in both these images are a combination of a spruce tree and the blue sky peeking through the branches.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-150962 size-full\" title=\"Perky White-crowned Sparrow (Interior West subspecies), Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg\" alt=\"Perky White-crowned Sparrow (Interior West subspecies), Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-perky-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Perky White-crowned Sparrow (Interior West subspecies) &#8211; Nikon D810, f9, 1\/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t resist posting this image of the same sparrow looking rather perky in between bursts of song. I took a lovely series of this bird so I am certain I will be posting more images of it in the future.<\/p>\n<p>This is the Interior West (Mountain) subspecies of White-Crowned Sparrow which look slightly different than the ones I often photograph in Utah during the winter.<\/p>\n<p>I am keeping this short and tweet. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/white-crowned-sparrow-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my White-crowned Sparrow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday was bright and sunny in the Centennial Valley and after hearing this White-crowned Sparrow singing I felt like breaking out in song too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,27,223,12,608,356],"tags":[4004,3820,3821,3819,4179,2816,855,4195,165,5434,4327,4256,2665],"class_list":["post-25463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-white-crowned-sparrows","tag-adult","tag-interior-west-subspecies","tag-mountain-subspecies","tag-perky","tag-singing-2","tag-song-birds","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-spring","tag-valley","tag-white-crowned-sparrow","tag-zonotrichia-leucophrys","tag-zonotrichia-leucophrys-oriantha"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-singing-mia-mcpherson-1825.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-6CH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15858,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/09\/19\/interior-west-white-crowned-sparrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":25463,"position":0},"title":"Interior West White-crowned Sparrow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Bird photography isn't easy and for smaller birds like this adult White-crowned Sparrow it can be challenging and require more patience than when photographing larger birds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Interior West White-crowned Sparrow perched on Western Serviceberry, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-crowned-sparrow-perched-mia-mcpherson-8691.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-crowned-sparrow-perched-mia-mcpherson-8691.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-crowned-sparrow-perched-mia-mcpherson-8691.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/white-crowned-sparrow-perched-mia-mcpherson-8691.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9466,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/09\/14\/white-crowned-sparrow-on-a-rusty-wire-fence\/","url_meta":{"origin":25463,"position":1},"title":"White-crowned Sparrow On A Rusty Wire Fence","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Centennial Valley of Montana at this time of the year I see plenty of White-crowned Sparrows of the interior west sub-species and although most of them that I see are juveniles there are also adults hanging around foraging too.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult White-crowned Sparrow on a wire fence in the Centennial Valley of Beaverhead County, Montana. Interior West subspecies.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-mia-mcpherson-4767.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-mia-mcpherson-4767.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-mia-mcpherson-4767.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-mia-mcpherson-4767.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":116305,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/27\/interior-west-white-crowned-sparrow-adult\/","url_meta":{"origin":25463,"position":2},"title":"Interior West White-crowned Sparrow Adult","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was at Farmington Bay WMA on Monday, I found and photographed a gorgeous Interior West White-crowned Sparrow adult perched on a Greasewood shrub.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Interior West White-crowned Sparrow perched in Greasewood, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/white-crowned-sparrow-fall-mia-mcpherson-1941.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/white-crowned-sparrow-fall-mia-mcpherson-1941.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/white-crowned-sparrow-fall-mia-mcpherson-1941.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/white-crowned-sparrow-fall-mia-mcpherson-1941.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":143217,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/01\/white-crowned-sparrow-in-spring\/","url_meta":{"origin":25463,"position":3},"title":"White-crowned Sparrow In Spring","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm sharing a lingering adult White-crowned Sparrow that I photographed from the deck three days ago. I\u2019d been listening to it sing for several days.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult White-crowned Sparrow in spring, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-eastern-taiga-miia-mcpherson-9280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-eastern-taiga-miia-mcpherson-9280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-eastern-taiga-miia-mcpherson-9280.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-eastern-taiga-miia-mcpherson-9280.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":121898,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/26\/winter-white-crowned-sparrow-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":25463,"position":4},"title":"Winter White-crowned Sparrow Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't seen as many sparrows this winter as I typically do, so I was tickled to take a few White-crowned Sparrow portraits at Farmington Bay WMA on Friday.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Winter White-crowned Sparrow adult portrait, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9496.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9496.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9496.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/white-crowned-sparrow-adult-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9496.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128080,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/01\/white-crowned-sparrow-photos-from-arkansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":25463,"position":5},"title":"White-crowned Sparrow Photos From Arkansas","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn't know I would be taking White-crowned Sparrow photos on my visit to Arkansas, but they do overwinter here. Thankfully, they haven't all migrated yet.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult White-crowned Sparrow in Arkansas, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-1533.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-1533.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-1533.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/white-crowned-sparrow-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-1533.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}