I saw a new to me bird today!

[conuly]

I looked out the window and said "Well, who the hell are you?" - it looked like two birds smushed together! Sparrow in the back, with a very long tail, white striped head. And, though I'm not sure this is relevant, when it flew away with all the other birds, it didn't perch on the standing weeds but hid on the ground in them. I only saw this twice, so I don't know.

I'm tentatively marking this down as a white-crowned sparrow, maybe. I'm a bit more sure of that than I am of that russetty sparrow I see around from time to time, which might be a song sparrow or a fox sparrow or a chipping sparrow or a tree sparrow or an I don't know or even not a sparrow at all. All I know is it's definitely not a house sparrow!