This was my first-of-fall Fox Sparrow. It may be of the Sooty group which provides our wintering Fox Sparrows, but some of its features suggest that it might be of the Slate-colored group, particularly the subspecies "altivagans", which nests in interior British Columbia and winters in Southern California and the southwest. As such, it could be a migrant passing through. The features in question are a crown tending toward gray rather than rich brown, more red in the flight feathers than is typical in Sooty, and somewhat less spotting on the breast. The Fox Sparrow is a candidate for a split, and Sooty and Slate-colored may someday be separate species. Don Roberson discusses the Fox Sparrow groups on his website at http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/MTYbirdsFOSP.html , with attention to the distinction between these groups and particularly the "altivagans" subspecies.