On the 14th of December, 2024 during the Sackville Christmas Bird Count a Harris’s Sparrow was discovered at a feeder in the count circle at Westcock, NB. The Harris’s Sparrow is a very rare find for New Brunswick being a species of the central part of North America. The bird remained at that location for only one day so only a few birders were fortunate enough to see it. Some photos in this blog post were taken of that individual. Westcock is in Westmorland County, near the Nova Scotia border on the isthmus of Chignecto, fairly close to the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy.
The Harris’s Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula) is the only bird species to breed only in Canada. All other species overlap into the United States. It is a member of the Passerellidae family and is closely related to the White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows.
The breeding range covers Northwest Territories, Nunavut and south to northern Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario. From there they migrate to their wintering grounds mainly through the central Great Plains. Rarely they will migrate through other parts of the US and eastern Canada. Peak fall migration is in October and spring migration is mostly in April. They spend their winters from southeastern Alaska, southern British Columbia, Utah, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, south to Texas, Arkansas, and New Mexico. They are most commonly found in the winter in central Kansas, central Oklahoma and northern Texas.
In its usual range this species is fairly common. On the breeding grounds it prefers mixed taiga forest habitat that overlaps between tundra and forest. These are open tundra areas dotted with spruce. In the winter it prefers dense deciduous woodlands often near water and adjacent to open fields, farmland and roadsides. It can also be found around bird feeders, hedgerows and brush piles. On the wintering grounds it associates with White-throated Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos.
The Harris’s Sparrow is a large sparrow, 16-19 cm long. In breeding plumage the adults show a black face, crown and throat and a large conical pink bill. The plumage is striking and unique. The back is brownish and striped and the breast is white. The cheeks are pale silvery gray to brown coloured. The whitish underparts are dressed up with a bold black bib and heavy black streaking on the sides and flanks. Both male and female aldults look the same. In winter the black on the crown of adults becomes flecked with brown or white.
The juveniles or first winter birds (which our specimen is) are less brilliantly marked. They resemble winter adults but with less black, and a white throat bordered by dark malar stripes. The distinctive post-ocular cheek patch is ochre or chestnut coloured.
The Harris’s Sparrow is such a distictive species it is not often mistaken for any other. The only one (which is not common here anymore) is the House Sparrow. Most birders would not make that mistake because the House Sparrow is much smaller, has a shorter tail, lacks the pink bill and is a bird of open spaces. The Harris’s Sparrow is a bird of bushy cover and does not linger in the open.
Harris's Sparrow Showing Chestnut Cheek Patch, White Throat and Long Tail [Internet Photo]The Harris’s Sparrow likes to feed on the ground and then sit high up in trees. It moves around by hopping and often sits with a limb or some other object between you and it. It is a difficult species to draw out of the bushes because it does not respond well to spishing. It is a strong flier and usually flies in a straight line with strong wing beats interspersed with a closed-wing glide. Its song is a high, clear whistle similar to that of the White-throated Sparrow, usually two or three notes delivered at the same pitch; seeeee seeee seeee. The call note is a low, rapid metallic sound.
This sparrow was named after an amateur American ornithologist, Edward Harris (1799-1863). For a long time the nesting habits of the Harris’s Sparrow were a mystery. To find a nest of this species became one of the great quests of North American ornithologists. It was not until about 100 years after the Europeans first found this species here in North America that a nest was actually found. In 1931, George M. Sutton found an active Harris’s Sparrow nest near Churchill, Manitoba, 91 years after it was first described.
The breeding territory of the Harris’s Sparrow is about 2 hectares in size. Nests are well hidden on the ground under a thick bush or conifer or in a mossy depression in a thick clump of grass. It is cup shaped and built of twigs, grass, moss and lichens and lined with fine grass. Three to five greenish or grayish eggs spotted with reddish brown are laid and incubated for approximately 13 days. The young fledge in about 3 weeks. If the first nest is destroyed a second may be attempted. This species is one of the least studied North American sparrows.
Harris’s Sparrows feed on the ground scratching the turf looking for food. Their preferred diet is made up of seeds, Carex sedges, grasses and Scirpus bulrushes. They will also eat fruit mainly black crowberries, mountain bearberries and various Vaccinium fruits (cranberries and blueberries). Their animal protein comes from beetles, flies, spiders, etc. They will even consume pine needles, flower buds and blossoms. As you can see, this is a versatile species!
There have been recent declines in the total population of the Harris’s Sparrow. That is a bit of a mystery because the species breeds in the far north and is isolated from human interference such as logging and urban development. It is speculated that there is habitat change, however, due to global warming with a change in soil conditions, and an increase in wildfires. It could also bring more predators into their nesting area.
I have often wondered why all the photos we have of this species are of first winter birds or wintering adults (rarely). When you think about it, we are a very long way from the breeding grounds of this species and we are not close to the migration route. So, the likelihood of an adult in breeding plumage arriving here is remote. Breeding birds are anxious to leave their wintering grounds and make a direct fast trip to their breeding grounds to claim their favourite territory. Most of those are experienced birds or led by experienced birds so they are unlikely to get off-route. So, we will have to be satisfied with the very rare occurence of this species here and most often of first winter birds. We are pleased at least one arrived in Westcock. Of the two I have seen, one was a second-year bird (Syracuse, NY, 1971) and one was a 1st winter bird (Harvey, NB, 2003).
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