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Glite Dictionary
white-crowned sparrow

white-crowned sparrow

7.5
A small North American songbird with a black-and-white striped head
  • noun
  • /ˈwaɪtˌkraʊnd ˈspæroʊ/
  • US
translation icon : gorrión coroniblanco
  • The distinct song of the white-crowned sparrow can be heard throughout the forest.

Examples

  • Every spring, many white-crowned sparrows return to my backyard to nest.

  • A white-crowned sparrow perched on a branch and sang a beautiful melody.

  • Scrub Jays and White-crowned Sparrows are very common and will eat your lunch for you if you let them.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Baptista, L. F., & Petrinovich, L. (1986). Song development in the white-crowned sparrow: Social factors and sex differences. Animal Behaviour, 34, 1359-1371.

    Academic text (2012)

Synonyms

Zonotrichia leucophrys
vswhite-crowned sparrow
  • Specialized
9.9

A small North American sparrow with bold black and white stripes on its head

is the common everyday name used instead of the Latin label

Surface Forms

white-crowned sparrow singular
white-crowned sparrows plural

Morphology

white-crowned + sparrow

The phrase is straightforwardly compositional: 'white-crowned' is analyzable as 'having a white crown' (white + crowned) and 'sparrow' is a common small songbird, so the whole means 'a sparrow with a white (striped) crown'. This follows standard adjective+noun composition found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows 'white', 'crown/crowned' and 'sparrow' can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

White-crowned sparrow: The name comes from how the bird looks. The top of its head has a bright white band that looks like a tiny crown, so people called this small songbird a white-crowned sparrow.