Beak of the Week – Harris’s Sparrow

Harris’s Sparrows are large, mostly brown sparrows with white underparts and black crowns, throats, and chests. During the breeding season, adults have silvery gray faces that contrast with their brown backs, and become browner during the winter. Immature birds are similar to winter adults, but have white throats.

These dapper sparrows breed in northern Canada, in largely open areas with sparse trees where boreal forest transitions into open tundra (in fact, they’re the only North American songbird that breeds exclusively in Canada and nowhere else). They ordinarily spend the winter months in the central Great Plains; recently, however, a young individual has found itself on Galveston Island!

Unfortunately, data from Christmas Bird Counts in their winter range show that Harris’s Sparrow populations have been declining since the 1970’s. Their relatively restricted breeding and winter ranges mean that they are sensitive to loss and/or degradation of their habitat. Climate change may lead to the encroachment of boreal forest into their breeding range, decreasing the amount of forest-tundra habitat that they prefer to nest in, while intensive agricultural practices threaten the health of their winter habitat.