Today Sharon Lind and I saw an apparent Eurasian Tree Sparrow x House Sparrow hybrid in our yard off Scenic Drive just west of Two Harbors in Lake County. The bird had a faint but noticeable dark ear spot on its grayish white cheeks, a burgundy brown head with extensive gray on the crown, a flattened rather than rounded crown, and an off-white hind collar that did not look as extensive as a Eurasian Tree Sparrow's.
A Eurasian Tree Sparrow spent the winter of 2016-2017 in downtown Two Harbors (last photographed in late April 2017), and another was seen on September 22 of 2018 at the Two Harbors cemetery. Andy and Jill Beim had three Eurasian Tree Sparrows this spring northeast of Tettegouche State Park May 21-23, 2019. There are sightings of Eurasian Tree Sparrow x House Sparrow hybrids in eBird from Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. I'll post photos to the Recently Seen page on the MOU site soon. Our eBird checklist with photos is at: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60442256 Jim LindTwo Harbors ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
