Birds

Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) is the preface painting in Gina's bird journal, a September 2024 watercolor. Gina's home area around St. Louis sits at the heart of the small North American range of this introduced bird. Its cap is chestnut and the cheek patch black, bold against a dark ground. Birds freed in St. Louis in 1870 left descendants in nearby Illinois and southeastern Iowa.