<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Julia et al.,</div><div><br></div><div>Savannah Sparrows are definitely present near Seattle in winter, but many of the sightings in eBird are undoubtedly misidentifications. They are much more regular in open grassy areas like the Snoqualmie Valley, but even there they're pretty low density in winter.</div><div><br></div><div>Interestingly, they often move locally in response to snowfall, showing up on the shores of Puget Sound and local lakes after snow covers their preferred habitat. Other species that are relatively rare in Seattle in winter but get driven here by snow include pipits, meadowlarks, and shorebirds including Least Sandpiper and Long-billed Dowitcher.</div><div><br></div><div>Good birding,</div><div>Matt Dufort</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Nov 26, 2025 at 3:18 PM Kim Thorburn via Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-818626211002270399">
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Western Washington, yes. I was quite surprised, though, by a couple of Savannah Sparrows (mixed in with a few American Tree Sparrows) on a cold, foggy day last week on the northern end of the Douglas Plateau . The habitat was right. Maybe distracted by the
mild fall weather.</div>
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Kim Marie Thorburn, MD, MPH</p>
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(509) 465-3025 home</p>
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<div id="m_-818626211002270399divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">tweeters-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu</a>> on behalf of Dennis Paulson via Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, November 26, 2025 2:18 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Julia H <<a href="mailto:azureye@gmail.com" target="_blank">azureye@gmail.com</a>><br>
<b>Cc:</b> TWEETERS tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Tweeters] Savannah sparrows in winter?</font>
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<div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">Julia, small numbers of Savannah Sparrows winter widely in western Washington (like the alliteration?), all the way north into southwestern BC. I would expect them only in wide-open grassy
areas, but if those are present, there could be Savannahs there.
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<div>Dennis Paulson</div>
<div>Seattle<br>
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<div>On Nov 26, 2025, at 2:02 PM, Julia H via Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div dir="ltr">I was surprised to see an ebird checklist for a local (Seattle) park that included savannah sparrow.
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<div>In my experience I never see savannah sparrows in Seattle in winter, which would seem to make sense based on their feeding patterns (I'm not sure how they'd survive winter!), and this range map from Cornell seems to agree: <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Savannah_Sparrow/maps-range" target="_blank">https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Savannah_Sparrow/maps-range</a></div>
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<div>But when I look at the range map for savannah sparrow based on ebird-reported observations, one gets the impression that there's quite a lot of savannah sparrows in western Washington in winter: <a href="https://ebird.org/map/savspa?neg=true&env.minX=-168.66954078670645&env.minY=25.321713084349895&env.maxX=-67.77110328670646&env.maxY=66.86001568245365&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&excludeExX=false&excludeExAll=false&mr=12-2&bmo=12&emo=2&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2025" target="_blank">https://ebird.org/map/savspa?neg=true&env.minX=-168.66954078670645&env.minY=25.321713084349895&env.maxX=-67.77110328670646&env.maxY=66.86001568245365&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&excludeExX=false&excludeExAll=false&mr=12-2&bmo=12&emo=2&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2025</a></div>
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<div>Should I be looking harder for this sparrow in winter? Or is that aggregated data just likely a lot of rather mistaken birders?</div>
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<div>Thanks,</div>
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<div>Julia</div>
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