I live in the Boston area, and there are so many House Sparrows on my front yard and backyard. But, even when I'm sitting still on the front or back steps, they never get closer than 5 feet from me. And I think this is normal, that birds usually don't come that close to people, particularly when there's a large crowd of people. It's amazing that this sparrow got so close to Bernie.  Seems like a good omen.