{"id":138663,"date":"2025-01-10T02:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T08:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=138663"},"modified":"2025-01-09T18:45:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:45:02","slug":"first-winter-harriss-sparrow-in-an-arkansas-snowstorm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/01\/10\/first-winter-harriss-sparrow-in-an-arkansas-snowstorm\/","title":{"rendered":"First Winter Harris’s Sparrow In An Arkansas Snowstorm"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was over the moon when I saw and photographed a first-winter Harris’s Sparrow in a snowstorm yesterday. I\u2019ve waited years and years to take these photos.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst winter Harris’s Sparrow in a snowstorm \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 1000, +2.0 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 371mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The first time I took photos of a Harris’s Sparrow was in March 2018 in northern Utah. I found a first winter Harris’s Sparrow lifer<\/span><\/a>, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I was only able to take poor quality documentary photos of that bird. Before that, I had been looking for this species since 2009.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Harris’s Sparrow in snow in Arkansas \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 1000, +2.0 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The photos I took yesterday of this immature Harris’s Sparrow more than made up for the first cruddy images I took of one in Utah\u2014by a long shot.<\/p>\n

I was thrilled to see this sparrow among all the other birds at the feeders in the falling snow.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst Winter Harris’s Sparrow on a snowy day \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 1000, +2.0 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The sparrow stood out against the snow-white background, and for a while, I only had eyes for them. This Harris’s Sparrow moved between the feeders and foraged on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Harris’s Sparrow foraging for seeds on snow \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 1000, +2.0 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I was surprised by how much larger this Harris’s Sparrow appeared compared to the nearby White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, who are also Zonotrichia sparrows.<\/p>\n

Oh, yes, the snowstorm brought in the White-crowned Sparrows, too. More on them later.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst winter Harris’s Sparrow in snow \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 1000, +2.0 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I kept my eyes on this beautiful young Harris’s Sparrow and took more than a hundred photos as it moved around in the falling snow. She or he was hard to miss\u2014they are a striking sparrow species.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst winter Harris’s Sparrow above a seed feeder \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 1000, +2.0 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It is supposed to snow until around 8 am today. I hope that I’ll be outside with this Harris’s Sparrow<\/span><\/a> in my viewfinder again not long after sunrise. Maybe a Fox Sparrow, another nemesis of mine, will also show up. That would be marvelous!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see my Harris’s Sparrow photo gallery plus facts and information about this species. As soon as I take more photos of this species, I will add them to the gallery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was over the moon when I saw and photographed a first-winter Harris’s Sparrow in a snowstorm yesterday. I\u2019ve waited years and years to take these photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13950,6416,13951],"tags":[13981,2450,4136,13931,6418,4067,156,4104,4050,4899,4328,855,4195,15824,373,13966,4193,6419],"class_list":["post-138663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arkansas","category-harriss-sparrow","category-sebastian-county","tag-feeder","tag-first-winter","tag-foraging","tag-garden","tag-harriss-sparrow","tag-immature","tag-low-light-2","tag-perched","tag-snow","tag-snowstorm","tag-snowy","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-suburban","tag-winter","tag-yard","tag-young","tag-zonotrichia-querula"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t