One Good Sparrow Deserves Another

Harris’s sparrow at Southside Riverfront Park, 11 May 2026 (photo by Steve Gosser) 12 May 2026 Yesterday I went birding twice: In the morning to find the Lincoln’s sparrows (yes, I saw two!) and in early afternoon at Bigbee Field with Jeff Cieslak to watch the Downtown peregrines through my scope. Meanwhile far below us at Southside Riverfront Park, Dan Wyrostek was taking a break at a picnic table when he saw an incredibly rare bird, a Harris’s sparrow, the first one ever recorded in Allegheny County, PA. Harris’s sparrows (Zonotrichia querula) breed in north central Canada and winter in the Great Plains but two individual birds out of range “Wowed” birders yesterday in both Pittsburgh and at Magee Marsh Boardwalk. (marked on the map with pink Xs) Range map of Harris’s sparrow from Wikimedia Dan added many photos to his eBird checklist — I’ve embedded four below — and posted his find on the Allegheny County Rare Bird Alert at 2:46pm. By sunset 34 eBirders had seen the bird. At one…