Harris’s Sparrow

The Harris’s Sparrow is North America’s largest Sparrow, often catching the attention of birders and non-birders alike. They are considered to be some of the most beautiful Sparrows on the continent, with their black bibs and pink bills. They are the only songbirds that breed in Canada and nowhere else, with their winter migrations taking them towards the Great Plains. Due to their secretive demeanors and remote habitats, they were not discovered until 1931, decades after most North American birds were cataloged.

About Harris’s Sparrows

These birds are most easily observed in their wintering habitats, with their sharp and thin calls piercing through the air and the brushes of the Great Plains. Due to their breeding grounds being located in the most remote regions of the boreal forests, they are secluded from human activity and are awfully hard to observe. Those who do manage to catch a sight of them, are rewarded with their delicately patterned plumes and their adorable appearances. Today, we want to talk about a poorly understood but majestic bird that entrances all those who catch a glimpse of them.

● Harris’s Sparrows Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Harris’s Sparrows Size, Eating Behavior, Habitat
● Harris’s Sparrows Range and Migration, Nesting

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Harris’s Sparrow Color Pattern

These larger Sparrows are not sexually dimorphic in their plumages, but they do molt into slightly different plumages depending on whether it is the breeding season or not. Breeding adults have a black hood that covers the crown, lores, throat, and the center of the upper breast. These black patches contrast with their gray faces and nape. Nonbreeding adults are browner on the face, with their black crown and nape taking on browner shades as well during the other seasons. Although they do not exhibit sexual dimorphism, nonbreeding adult males tend to have more black on their
chins and throats than nonbreeding adult females during fall and winter seasons. Although, there is still considerable overlap between them. Their bills are a pale pink throughout the year.

Juveniles closely resemble nonbreeding adults but have mostly white throats and little to no black on their faces or crowns. All juveniles have varying degrees of dark spots and streaks on their breasts.

Description and Identification

During migration and winter, you can spot these birds freely foraging out in the open. They are relatively less shy than other Sparrow species and are considerably larger than them as well. These factors alone are enough to accurately identify them in their wintering grounds, as they are significantly harder to spot in their breeding grounds in northern Canada. Their blackish crowns and napes are another easy identifier for these birds. They are also frequent visitors to bird feeders with black oil sunflower seeds. Although these birds only reside in the Great Plains during winter, they cover most of the United States during migration and may occur in any region throughout most of the country.

Harris’s Sparrow Song

These Sparrows have a fairly limited vocal range, with their songs consisting of 1-3 pure tonal notes that are all in the same pitch. Usually you can only hear their call during the breeding seasons in order to establish their breeding territories, although they may occasionally sing during migration. Both sexes make calls throughout the year. However, males sing far more than females during the breeding seasons. They generally begin during the morning and reduce by midday, before picking up their songs again by the evening.

Their calls can include a gentle “tseep” that is relatively rare, or a more common “tchip”. They also have a hoarse, buzzy call that sounds like “zhee zhee zhee”, they insert this into their songs. Their alarm calls are a loud and distinct “weenk”. They have other calls like a soft warbling or chuckling, although the social contexts of these have not been studied well. Unlike many other species of Sparrows, there seems to be minimal geographical variation in their calls.

Harris’s Sparrow Size

Harris’s Sparrows are large Sparrows with chunky builds. They are approximately 6.7–7.9 inches in length and weigh around 0.9–1.7 ounces. Harris’s Sparrows have a large barrel-shaped chest that makes their round head seem far too small for their body, only highlighted by their long tails. They have medium-sized conical bills and pointed wings that have a wingspan of 10.6 inches. These birds are relatively larger than Song Sparrows, but smaller than Eastern Towhees.

Harris’s Sparrow Behavior

These birds typically hop, both on the ground and on branches. They generally forage on the ground by hopping about and gleaning, probing, and scratching from leaf litter, twigs, stems, and other vegetation. Harris’s Sparrows may also hop into small shrubs and trees to rest or to sing. They fly with direct and rapid wingbeats, typically going up tree trunks when they are alarmed.

Adults of both sexes arrive at the breeding grounds around the same time and begin forming pairs within a week. The season commences with males singing from exposed perches in trees and shrubs to establish the boundaries of their territories and to attract potential mates. Although pairs are monogamous for the season, they find new mates the following year. Pairs also tend to be solitary during the breeding seasons, nesting away from colonies of other birds. They abandon their solitary lifestyles to forage with other Sparrow species on their wintering grounds. If males
succeed in raising the young in a particular territory, they return to the same area the following breeding season.

Harris’s Sparrows also seem to maintain a social hierarchy, as older birds dominate the younger individuals as they forage. Older birds chase or push the younger birds out of the way to secure food sources for them, with the younger birds often not resisting. Older birds tend to have darker colors than the younger ones, which seems to be the main marker for an individual bird’s position in the hierarchy. Younger birds that had been dyed did not get dominated as frequently as compared to the birds that remained pale.

Harris’s Sparrow Diet

Like other Sparrows, these birds consume sufficient amounts of insects, seeds, fruits, and other plant material. During the earliest weeks of the breeding seasons. They consume an abundant number of fruits until their habitats warm up to bring back the insect populations. They eat crowberries and bearberries, mainly. As the region warms up and the insect populations begin to soar, they eat flies, beetles, butterflies, and other insects. They may also consume plant buds, sedges, grasses, and young spruce needles as and when required. Their diet during the winter is relatively simpler, with most common food items being ragweed, knotweed, and goosefoot. They also frequently visit bird feeders with sunflower seeds.

Harris’s Sparrow Habitat

Harris’s Sparrows breed in stunted boreal forests, preferring the zones where the northern forests give way to the tundra, such as the semi-forested areas in northern Canada. They favor nesting in areas with a mixture of stunted spruce or larch trees, shrubby thickets, and open tundra. Tree species that are popular among them include white pine, black spruce, larch, alder, and willow mixed with dwarf shrubs, sedges, and dense patches of lichens. Their wintering habitats are typically hedgerows, agricultural fields, shrubby pastures, backyards, and shrubby areas near
streams. They can live in woodland edges, brushy fields, shelterbelts, and thickets, but they generally avoid dry shortgrass prairies and densely wooded areas.

Range and Migration

Harris’s Sparrows are medium-distance migrants that breed in the northern-most central regions of Canada, circling the tundra and the Arctic in some regions. Migration seasons take them southwards through south-central Canada and north-central United States, although they appear in 48 states in the United States during migration. Their wintering grounds lie in the Great Plains region of the south-central United States, a far more limited territory than the regions that they cross through during migration.

Harris’s Sparrow Lifecycle

After pairing, females have their only brood of the year. The brood has a clutch size of 3-5 pale green eggs, with only the female incubating for 12-15 days. After the eggs hatch, the chicks emerge entirely naked and helpless. Both parents feed the nestlings for a few weeks after they hatch, with the young ones leaving the nest around 8-10 days after hatching. They get the ability to fly a few days later and are presumably independent from that point on.

Nesting

Males select the territories for nesting early in the breeding season, but females most likely make the final selection of the nest site. The nest is generally on the ground below short alder, spruce, dwarf birch, or dwarf Labrador tea. The nest is almost always on the side of a shrub or any other cover in order to block out the cold winds of the tundra.

Females construct the nest over a period of 2-3 days. Females build a cup-shaped nest of mosses, small twigs, and lichens. They line the interiors with dried sedges and grasses, with the resultant structure measuring 2.5 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep.

Anatomy of a Harris’s Sparrow

Harris’s Sparrows are the largest Sparrows in North America, with chunky builds that are highlighted by their large barrel-shaped chests. They have round heads that look a little small for their bodies, and long tails that give them the characteristic appearance of Sparrows. Their bills are medium-sized and conical, while their legs are fairly long and angled. They have a black crown, nape, and throat during the breeding seasons, features that sharply contrast with their gray faces. During the winter seasons, these black regions turn into a dark, brownish hue while the rest of their plumages become duller.

Final Thoughts

Harris’s Sparrows breed in incredibly remote areas of northern Canada, making their territories outside the area covered by most bird breeding surveys of North America. The best data comes from the Christmas Bird Count that conducts their analyses on their wintering grounds, with their data showing that this species has suffered a decline by 1.8% every year since 1965. This resulted in a 63% decline of their total numbers by 2014. The exact causes behind the decline of this species are not yet fully understood, but their limited breeding and wintering ranges seem to
play a significant part as it makes them especially vulnerable to habitat loss.

Logging, resource extraction, and other factors play a huge role in limiting their breeding grounds further. Since climate change also has a stronger effect on higher latitudes, this may be another factor behind their steadily declining numbers. If you live around the Great Plains, it is highly likely that you have encountered these large Sparrows at least once before. You can still spot them at bird feeders that offer black oil sunflower seeds, millet, and cracked corn, standing out from other flocks of Sparrows by the virtue of their large size. Brush piles in your backyard and other bird
friendly features like perches can also make those areas attractive to them during migration and winter. A little effort can very easily bring you into close contact with secretive but popular birds!

Ornithology

Bird Watching Academy & Camp Subscription Boxes

At the Bird Watching Academy & Camp we help kids, youth, and adults get excited and involved in bird watching. We have several monthly subscription boxes that you can subscribe to. Our monthly subscription boxes help kids, youth, and adults learn about birds, bird watching, and bird conservation.

Bird Watching Binoculars for IdentifyingHarris’s Sparrows

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Harris’s Sparrows are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Harris’s Sparrow Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Harris’s Sparrow. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders ForHarris’s Sparrows

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Bird HousesForHarris’s Sparrows

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.