White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)

For me, there are two major challenges in birdwatching. The first is to sort out all the different kinds of seagulls. There are many and they all seem to look pretty much alike. I have yet to meet this challenge. However, I am getting a little on top of the second major difficulty - identification of all those little brown birds that flutter about and look very much alike - sparrows, wrens, finches, etc. The difficulties may be exemplified by the fact that there are over 35 different kinds of sparrow in North America and plenty of sparrow-like birds as well. I am proud that I can now identify at least the more common varieties found around Victoria although I am not always 100% certain. However, the sparrow above belting out his little heart on the shores of Esquimalt Lagoon is almost certainly a White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys).