Sooty Fox Sparrow

Passerella unalaschcensis (Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Sooty Fox Sparrow, Passerella unalaschcensis, breeds in North America from the Aleutian Islands and south-west Alaska to north-west British Columbia, and spends the non-breeding season from British Columbia south to southern California. It is a fox sparrow group within Passerella and is noted for being the darkest-coloured set of forms in the genus. It has been treated as a subspecies group, although it has also been regarded as a distinct evolutionary line. It is considered closest to the thick-billed and possibly the slate-coloured fox sparrows.

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Passerellidae — New World Sparrows

Breeding range

North America: Aleutian Is. and sw Alaska to nw British Columbia

Nonbreeding range

British Columbia s to s California