Our humble House Sparrows have not always lived in such close proximity to us in our urban sprawls. They used to be countryside and farmyard seed eating birds, indeed if your lucky, and know where to look, you can still find their much scarcer cousins the Tree Sparrow predominantly in countryside hedgerows. And even today you can still find large flocks of House Sparrows inhabiting farmyards and stables where they survive by eating spilled grain and animal feeds.
It was during our own social-economic lifestyle change from agricultural to industrial that brought Sparrows into our towns and cities, as they followed the movement of the population from the countryside.
House Sparrows live a communal existence with a dominant male at the head. During the breeding season the male Sparrows pecking order can be defined by the size of his black bib, which can only be found on the male bird. The larger the bib the more dominant the male.
House Sparrows were once considered as pests and culled whenever possible, in the 1860’s the Sussex village of Rudgwick recorded a cull of 5,321 Sparrows killed during the year, the local press of the day making special note of an ever vigilant Mr W Wooberry bagging 1,363 alone.
How times have changed, there is now a well recorded decline in the numbers of urban House Sparrows of late, and many “experts” have put forward many differing theories on what they think is the cause. But the simple answer is, as yet, nobody knows.
Dominant male House Sparrow showing his large black bib.
Female House Sparrow.
Tree Sparrow
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