This Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow (Ammodramus nelsonii) was banded at Powdermill Biological Station on 30 September 2000. This is the first occurrence of the species at the Station and one of very few records in western Pennsylvania away from Presque Isle on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
It is the 183rd species on the Station's banding list (which also includes an additional five distinctive subspecies and hybrid forms).
It was identified, compared to the very similar Salt Marsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow (A. caudacutus), based on its comparatively short bill, indistinct malar streaks, buffy throat contrasting little with the buffy-orange submoustachial stripe, and relatively bright buffy-orange breast with moderately distinct blackish streaks.
It was a hatching year (HY) bird, having an incompletely pneumatized skull. Its unflattened wing chord measured 53.0 mm, its culmen from nares to tip was 7.5 mm, it had a maximum fat deposit rating a "3" on our scale of 0-3, and it weighed 15.1 g.