Song sparrows are one of those North Anerican sparrows that shows some geographc variation of a few regional populations. The ones we see near the California coast have dark black streaking down the front which sometimes converge into a heavy mid-breast spot, and in the Pacific Northwest they were browner with heavy blurry indistinct streaking, whereas the southwestern birds can be crisply streaked in a rich rufous color and white underbelly more like the bird pictured here. We have never been to see it, but there is even a darker Aleutian version.