Harris's sparrow (''Zonotrichia querula'') is a large sparrow. Their breeding habitat is the north part of central

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

(primarily the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

and

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

, ranging slightly into northern

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

), making it Canada's only endemic breeding bird. In the winter they

migrate Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

to the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

states of the United States, from southern

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

to central

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The common name of this species commemorates the American amateur ornithologist Edward Harris (1799–1863).

Description

This species is the largest of the sparrows in the family

Passerellidae New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. Although they share t ...

, though other superficially dissimilar species in the family may slightly exceed them in size. They range in total length from , with a wingspan and weigh from . Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, r ...

is , the

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

is and the tarsus is . This is a very distinctive looking species. Breeding plumage birds have conspicuous pink bills and black on the crown, face, throat and upper breast, contrasting with grey on the sides of the head and neck. The back is brown, overlaid with heavy black streaking. There are two white wing bars. Breeding birds have white lower underparts with some black mottling on flanks. Non-breeding adults are more buffy than grey and brown, with reduced or absent black markings and often have whitish scalloping on the head and throat. Immatures have less black than all adult plumages, normally marked with a white chin and throat, a black malar stripe and a broad smudgy black breast-band. Juveniles have a brownish crown streaked with black and fine dark streaks and some broader black markings on the underside. Birds moult from July to September. Confusion of wintering birds is possible with the winter

Lapland longspur The Lapland longspur (''Calcarius lapponicus''), also known as the Lapland bunting, is a passerine bird in the longspur family Calcariidae, a group separated by most modern authors from the Fringillidae (Old World finches). Etymology The English ...

(''Calcarius lapponicus'') but that species is much shorter-tailed with white outer

rectrices Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail ...

, has rich

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a dia ...

in greater coverts, and is strictly terrestrial on open ground. The song of the Harris's sparrow is usually delivered from a high perch. The song consists of a series of one or more clear high wavering whistles followed by another series in higher or lower pitch. They have also been known to call out a strong, metallic ''chink'', as well as some variable musical twittering.

Habitat

The Harris's sparrow breeds in stunted

coniferous forests Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...

and adjacent scrubs, especially areas of the grand

boreal forests Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces ...

where stands of spruce abut mossy bogs. They often nest near the northern limit of tree growth in the forest-tundra

ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

. Typical plant life in the breeding grounds consist of

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

and

black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Labra ...

(''Picea glauca'' and ''P. mariana'') and

American larch ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland (island) ...

(''Larix laricina''), dwarf

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

, and wet

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

meadow and shrubby tundra with dwarf ericad/

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s to winter in open woodlands, woodland edges and clearings, hedgerows, dense riparian thickets and around brush piles. The Harris's sparrow regularly occurs at feeders in suburban and rural gardens during the wintertime. They typically avoid dry shortgrass

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s and dense woods during winter. Migrating sparrows may be attracted to

marsh elder ''Iva'' is a genus of wind-pollinated plants in the family Asteraceae, described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753. Plants of this genus are known generally as marsh elders. The genus is native to North America. ; Accepted species * ''Iva angustifo ...

(''Iva annua'') and

giant ragweed ''Ambrosia trifida'', the giant ragweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. Distribution It is present in Europe a ...

(''Ambrosia trifida'').

Behaviour

Migration

Spring migration commences around late February with birds arriving on breeding grounds by May. Sparrows arrive on their wintering grounds as early as late October, though mostly during November and early December. Records from

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada's oldest National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous terrain, wi ...

suggest Harris's sparrows use mountain valleys as migration routes. Apparently, fall migration is less strict than spring migration as Harris's sparrows regularly wander about prairie provinces in Canada until harsh weather forces them south.Baumgartner, A. M. 1968. Harris's Sparrow. Pages 1249-1273 in ''Life histories of North American cardinals, grosbeaks, buntings, towhees, finches, sparrows, and their allies, part 3''. Vol. 237 (Austin, Jr., O. L., Ed.) U.S. National Museum Bulletin

Feeding ecology

The Harris's sparrow generally feeds on the ground, scratching vigorously in the leaves and soil for food. Observed foraging during nesting was 85% ground-gleaning.Norment, C. J. 1992a. ''The comparative breeding ecology of the Harris's Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula) and White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) in the Northwest Territories, Canada''. Phd Thesis. University of Kansas, Lawrence. During the breeding season individuals typically forage alone or with a mate. Primary in the diet (66% of stomach contents of breeding birds) are

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s, largely of ''Carex'' sedges, grasses and ''Scirpus'' bulrush.Semple, J. B. and G. M. Sutton. 1932. ''Nesting of Harris's Sparrow Zonotrichia querula at Churchill, Manitoba''. Auk 49:166-183. Also important in the breeding season diet are

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s, largely

black crowberry ''Empetrum nigrum'', crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but there ...

(''Empetrum nigrum''), mountain bearberry (''Arctostaphylos alpina'') and various ''

Vaccinium ''Vaccinium'' is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whort ...

'' species. Pine needles,

flower bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be speci ...

s and

blossom In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring. Colloquially, flowers of orange are referred to as such as wel ...

s are eaten supplementally. Larval invertebrates are important from June to September in the diet, as available prey becomes more common at this point. The principal preferred animal prey includes

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...

aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

s and

leafhopper A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and a ...

s. The diet of wintering Harris's sparrow is less well-known and has not been quantitatively studied.

Sociality

Males of this species often group together to sing at dusk. In winter flocks, Harris's sparrows maintain linear dominance hierarchies that determine access to food and roost sites. The most dominant birds are the oldest males which usually also have the largest bibs. "Jump fights" between males occasionally occur, consisting of birds facing off, then leaping at each other, pecking, clawing and beating each other with wings. Testosterone alone does not affect the dominance status of winter birds. If first winter birds have their feathers dyed black, creating an artificially large bib, they rise in the dominance hierarchy past females and other young males. It is usually found in flocks up to several dozen in winter, individuals regularly wandering outside of the "normal" range and turning up in flocks of other sparrow species.

Reproduction

Breeding pairs establish a territory of about .Norment, C. J. & S. A. Shackleton. 1993. "Harris' Sparrow (''Zonotrichia querula'')". In

Birds of North America The lists of birds in the light blue box below are divided by biological family. The lists are based on ''The AOS Check-list of North American Birds'' of the American Ornithological Society and ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' su ...

, No. 64 (A. Poole & F. Gill, eds.) Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists' Union. Nests are usually constructed in early to mid-June. Eggs are usually laid by late June to July, depending on when snow in their habitat completely melts. In this species, nests are placed in a well-hidden spot on the ground underneath a thick bush or small conifer or in mossy depression in thick grass clumps. Both parents build a

cup nest A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American robin or Eurasian bl ...

out of twigs, grass, moss and lichens and line it with fine grasses. From three to five eggs are laid, being variably greenish or greyish in colour with differing degrees of small reddish-brown spot. Eggs average in size and weigh approximately . The incubation stage lasts for approximately 13.5 days. The chicks weigh about upon hatching. The young will fledge in about 8 to 10 days, from July 4 to July 13. About 3 weeks after fledging, the young become independent of their parents.Norment, C. 2003. ''Patterns of Nestling feeding in Harris’s Sparrows, Zonorichia querula and White-crowned Sparrows, Z. leucophyrs, in the Northwest Territories, Canada''. Canadian Field-Naturalist, 117: 203-208. Second clutches may be laid if the first is destroyed, usually prolonging the brooding period a further three days for the parent sparrows. The species is arguably the least studied North American sparrow due to its isolated nesting territory. The first nest ever found was discovered 1931 in Churchill, Manitoba by ornithologist George M. Sutton, 91 years after the species was initially described.Cornell Lab of Ornithology
/ref>

Longevity and mortality

The Harris's sparrow has lived for up to 11 years and 8 months in the wild. Predators on the nest can including varied terrestrial mammals, including

Arctic ground squirrel The Arctic ground squirrel (''Urocitellus parryii'') (Inuktitut: ''ᓯᒃᓯᒃ, siksik'') is a species of ground squirrel native to the Arctic and Subarctic of North America and Asia. People in Alaska, particularly around the Aleutians, refer to ...

s (''Spermophilus parryii'') and

stoat The stoat (''Mustela erminea''), also known as the Eurasian ermine, Beringian ermine and ermine, is a mustelid native to Eurasia and the northern portions of North America. Because of its wide circumpolar distribution, it is listed as Least Conc ...

s (''Mustela erminea''). Harris's sparrows provide an easy target for these predators due to the location of their nests on the ground.

Canada jay The Canada jay (''Perisoreus canadensis''), also known as the gray jay, grey jay, camp robber, or whisky jack, is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae. It is found in boreal forests of North America north to the tree line, and in the Rock ...

s (''Perisoreus canadensis''),

northern shrike The northern shrike (''Lanius borealis'') is a large songbird species in the shrike family ( Laniidae) native to North America and Siberia. Long considered a subspecies of the great grey shrike, it was classified as a distinct species in 2017. Si ...

s (''Lanius excubitor'') and merlins (''Falco columbarius'') can be a serious predators at the nest (including both nestlings and adults). Shrikes,

sharp-shinned hawk The sharp-shinned hawk (''Accipiter striatus'') is a small hawk, with males being the smallest hawks in the United States and Canada, but with the species averaging larger than some Neotropical realm, Neotropical species, such as the tiny hawk. ...

s (''Accipiter striatus'') and

great horned owl The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extrem ...

s (''Bubo virginianus'') are known predators of wintering Harris's sparrows. As an anti-predator adaptation, Harris's sparrows fly up into trees when startled by other animals, usually issuing an alarm call in the process (''weenk''). They duck down to the ground when threatened by other birds. They also produce alarm calls when threatened to alert others.

Conservation status

This species is classified as being of

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. The total breeding population is estimated at about 2 million individuals.Cornell Lab of Ornithology
/ref> However, the species came to be included on the "Audubon Watchlist" because there appears to have been a decline in the number of birds observed in annual

Christmas Bird Count The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, performed annually in the early Northern-hemisphere winter by volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society. The purpose is to provide popu ...

s across North America. The species is fairly adaptable in wintering habitat and feeding opportunities and its habitat is isolated enough to be out of reach for heavy human development, which makes the recent declines something of a mystery. The species breeds on the northern edge of

and it is possible that habitat change in their breeding range is affecting this sparrow. The boreal forest, beyond heavy logging, has been adversely affected by increased

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

and declining soil quality, both of which are likely correlated to

global climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

.Goulden, M. L., Wofsy, S. C., Harden, J. W., Trumbore, S. E., Crill, P. M., Gower, S. T., ... & Munger, J. W. (1998). ''Sensitivity of boreal forest carbon balance to soil thaw''. Science, 279(5348), 214-217.

References

* ''Sparrows and Buntings: A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World'' by Clive Byers & Urban Olsson. Houghton Mifflin (1995). .

External links

Harris's sparrow species account
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology

- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q1034120

Harris's sparrow Harris's sparrow (''Zonotrichia querula'') is a large sparrow. Their breeding habitat is the north part of central Canada (primarily the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, ranging slightly into northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan), making it C ...

Birds of Canada