[3] Ornithologist John Latham first described the species in his book General Synopsis of Birds in 1781, but he thought it was a variety of what he called the "black-crowned bunting" and neglected to give it a scientific name.

[6] In the bird's scientific name, the genus name Zonotrichia is a compound word: from Ancient Greek ζώνη (zone, transl.

Other than a plain gray nape, the adult's upperparts are grayish-brown, with broad brownish-black streaks on the back and scapulars, and an unstreaked rump.

[12] In the breeding season, the golden-crowned sparrow has a broad yellow central crown stripe which becomes pale gray towards the back of the head.

[13] A young or non-breeding bird may also resemble a female house sparrow, but can be distinguished by its larger size, darker plumage, longer tail and (usually) some amount of dull yellow feathering on its forehead.

[5] It has been recorded as a vagrant in Japan and Russia,[1] and occasionally strays as far as the eastern coast of North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida.

[15] Studies show that the golden-crowned sparrow's black and gold head stripes are used to signal social status in wintering flocks.

Birds with similarly sized gold crown patches are far more likely to engage in agonistic behavior than are those showing differences, and the outcomes of such confrontations can be predicted based on the color of their black stripes.

This suggests that social status in this species involves more complexity than a single signal will allow, and that the multiple color patches allow a gradient of interactions between flock mates.

[17] Its diet, particularly in the winter, consists primarily of plant material; items include seeds, berries, flowers and buds, as well as the occasional crawling insect.

[17] The species is an important destroyer of weed seeds on the Pacific Slope,[18] with various ryegrasses, fescues, bromes, pigweeds, chickweeds, mulleins, filarees, common knotweed and poison oak among its known food sources.

[17] The species shows two weight peaks each year: one in mid-winter, and a much higher one shortly before it begins its migration north in the spring.

[17] Located on the ground (or occasionally on a low branch), it is made of dried plant material and lined with hair, fine grasses and feathers.

The sparrow's extremely large range and population size lift it well above the thresholds used to designate an imperiled species,[1] and data from Christmas Bird Counts show that its numbers are stable or increasing.