Harris’s Sparrow is a species that demonstrates that those ‘little brown birds’ are worth a second look. Since they breeds in very far north Canada it is seldom seen in populated areas except during winter and migration. Of special interest to our Canadian readers, Cornell Labs of Ornithology states, “Harris’s Sparrow is the only bird species that breeds in Canada and nowhere else in the world.”
The bird in these photos is a first winter Harris’s Sparrow that was born this past summer in the arctic breeding grounds of this species. Their buffy colored faces appear almost golden in the sunlight. The black on their crown, throat and breast along with their large pink bill highlight their colorful faces. The adult birds have completely black crown, forehead, throat and breast with gray on their faces. This bird is almost exclusively a Midwestern bird whose winter range reaches far south into Texas and Louisiana but a few are seen every year as far west as the Pacific Coast.
These large sized sparrows are often seen at feeders where smaller seeds (such as white proso millet) and suet are offered. Like other sparrows they are used to scratching around the ground for weed seeds and so may often be seen feeding on the ground under feeders.
Have you had these pretty winter birds in your yard?
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Western Kingbird
