Eurasian tree sparrow

In the 1870s, another European sparrow came to the US, but had a completely different fate.

[Eurasian Tree Sparrow chirping] In Lafayette Park in St. Louis, Missouri, a dozen or so Eurasian Tree Sparrows from Germany were released.

Their descendants fanned out across the city and its suburbs.

Eventually, some moved up the Mississippi River to Illinois and southeastern Iowa.

But that's about as far as they traveled.

[Eurasian Tree Sparrow chirping] Unlike House Sparrows, Eurasian Tree Sparrows haven't become invasive in North America.

It's not fully clear why, but it's possible that they just behave differently, and the aggressive House Sparrow may have helped prevent the Tree Sparrows from spreading further by competing for the same nesting sites.

Eurasian Tree Sparrows still remain in a small area of the Midwest, where they're not much of a nuisance to native birds and are a local curiosity for birders.

So on December 23rd, before we'd even traveled anywhere, I added two lifers, an auspicious start for a birding adventure.

We spent Christmas morning wandering aimlessly around Cahokia Mounds State Park in Illinois and a couple of St. Louis neighborhoods, hoping against hope that a Eurasian tree sparrow would turn up, but no such luck.

The next day, I saw my lifer Feruginous Hawk as we drove through Oklahoma and going through Texas.

The next day, I added Great-Tailed Grackle, Harris's Hawk, and Lark Bunting all from the car.