Sooty Fox Sparrow

Erika and I banded this Sooty Fox Sparrow in our yard in Olympia on 8 October 2020. Previously I have written about the complicated systematics of Fox Sparrow. Ten subspecies sort out into four groups. These groups may be full species. This bird is one of the Sooty races that inhabit the west coast of North America. These western subspecies breed from the Aleutians south to western Washington. Curiously the more north a population breeds, the farther south it winters. Alaskan birds winter in southern California, whereas birds breeding in Washington may remain all year (Weckstein et al. 2020).