Black-capped Sparrow vs Half-collared Sparrow

Black-capped Sparrow

Arremon abeillei

Small26 gWoodland

The black-capped sparrow is about 15 cm (5.9 in) long and weighs about 26 g (0.92 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly black head with a white throat and a wide white stripe from above the eye down the side of the nape. They often raise their crown feathers in a shaggy crest. Their upperparts and tail are blue-gray. Their wing coverts are blue-gray; some individuals have small pale tips on them that form two wing bars. Their flight feathers are dusky with blue-gray edges. Their throat is white with a black band below it across the upper breast. Voice: The black-capped sparrow's song is described as "a fast tseeét, tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi tseeét and as "a variable high series of thin, buzzy whistles and loose trills, for example: tsew tsew tsi-tetetetete". Its calls are a "very short, high-pitched tsik", a "high-pitched sibilant or lisping descending tseew", and a "high-pitched buzzy bzee". The first two are usually repeated a few times.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song · Manabí: Río Ayampe, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Allan Harris · CC0

Half-collared Sparrow

Arremon semitorquatus

Small28 gForest

The half-collared sparrow is about 15 cm (5.9 in) long and weighs 22 to 28 g (0.78 to 0.99 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic but not dramatically so. Adult males have a black crown with a gray stripe through its middle, black lores, and a white supercilium that extends to the nape. The rest of their face is black. Their nape and the sides of their neck are gray. Their upperparts, wings, and tail are mostly greenish olive with somewhat more yellowish green on the lesser wing coverts. They have a white throat. Voice: One song of the half-collared sparrow is "a high-pitched series of three whistles, each whistle descending in frequency, and each lower in pitch than previous one, tzee–tzeuuu-tzééúúúú". Another has "an up-down, up-down pattern, swee-swóóó swee-swóóó". Its call is a metallic "sharp ringing tiip".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Daniel S. Katz · CC BY 4.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Black-capped Sparrow and Half-collared Sparrow.