This is a common winter visitor and migrant to our area. It breeds in far Western Canada and in Alaska. This individual has almost completed the head molt resulting in very broad lateral crown stripes setting off its bright yellow fore-crown. We see birds like this in full breeding plumage for a short time before they migrate back north. Their plumage cycle differs substantially from the closely related White-crowned Sparrow which has distinct immature (formative) and adult plumages, but no distinct breeding plumage. Canon PowerShot P510.
References:
Norment, C. J., Paul Hendricks and R. Santonocito. (1998). Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla), The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/gocspa
Byers, C., J. Curson, and U. Olsson. 1995. Sparrows and Buntings: A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Rising, J. (2017). Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/61914 on 17 April 2017).