The house
sparrow is regarded by many people in Great Britain as the commonest bird they
are likely to see, with groups of them being visible whenever they look in
their gardens or at nearby house roofs or gutters. However, numbers in many
places have been in serious decline in recent years.
The
house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is distributed throughout the world, having
adapted to living alongside Man in both rural and urban settings. It has become
adept at living off the scraps that people discard, whether seeds in fields,
animal feed, or crumbs from city dwellers’ fast food.
Appearance
The house
sparrow is about 15 centimetres (6 inches) in length. It is quite plump, with
short legs, a tail that is neither short not long, and a short bill that is
finch-like in shape. Male house sparrows are chestnut on top and whitish
underneath, with a grey crown and rump and a black throat. In winter, the
colouring is less bright. Females have similar colouring that is less
pronounced, and do not have the males’ grey crown or black throat. It is
therefore harder to tell males from females in winter than in summer.
Behaviour
The
flight of house sparrows is direct or undulating, with hurried beats. On the
ground they will hop with the tail held erect, pausing to stand upright. They
will take food from the ground or bushes or bird-feeders. Although not as
acrobatic as blue tits, they are quite happy to hang upside-down from feeders
or nets, and can even hover for a few seconds at a time. They are gregarious
feeders, with groups of a dozen or more appearing when food is provided.
Song
House
sparrows are very vocal birds, especially when in groups. They are
argumentative, as in Yeats’s famous line about “the brawling of a sparrow in
the eaves”, and will fight each other over scraps of food. For a small bird,
the sparrow has a big voice, and not an especially musical one, being a series
of chirps, twitters and chirrups.
Breeding
Courtship
can begin as early as February, with the male birds displaying in front of the
females with their wings drooped. Sparrows remain faithful to their partners
for life. Nests are built from early March, in tree branches or cavities, or in
crevices in walls, behind drainpipes or in nesting boxes. Sparrows tend to
build nests in groups, with perhaps up to 20 pairs nesting in close proximity
with a large gap before the next colony is found. The nest is generally an
untidy structure of plant stems, straw, pieces of paper (etc) and feathers, of
a round shape with a side entrance.
The
clutch comprises three to six (sometimes more) eggs laid at daily intervals
with incubation starting halfway through laying. Both partners take turns to
incubate, for up to 14 days, with fledging taking up to 17 days. The chicks are
fed on insects and caterpillars at first and later on seeds and grain.
Although
both parents feed the young at the nest, after they have fledged this becomes
the duty of the male house sparrow (for up to two weeks), as the female is
preparing to raise the next brood. It is common for three broods to be raised
in a season, and a fourth is not unknown. This behaviour was presumably what
led Chaucer to use the line “lecherous as a sparrow” when describing his
Summoner in the Canterbury Tales.
After
the young birds have become independent of their parents, they form flocks to
feed away from the breeding area, and they are joined there by the adult birds
once all the broods have been raised.
Red List
Status
The
reason why sparrows have this status in the United Kingdom
The
decline seems to be most noticeable in city populations, and may have something
to do with greater efforts being made to clear food waste from city centres. Now
that people are fined for feeding birds, especially pigeons, and active steps are
being taken to discourage rats by sealing waste bins, the sparrows also suffer.
In the
countryside, modern farming methods mean that there is less food available for
birds, and sealed animal housing provides fewer nest site opportunities.
© John
Welford
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