House Sparrows

[iainL]

Has anyone noticed a lack of house sparrows this year? We normally have a colony of around 20 or so at our house chirping and squawking away by now but this year I've only seen one male so far.

Still, there are plenty of Tree Sparrows around at least

Iain

[aeshna5]

I've had fewer over the last months. Over the winter I never saw more than 15-20. Previous winters were roughly double this figure. Just a few at the moment.

[Guinnessman1974]

We have loads around, there is constant chirping noise around the local houses!

[forestwildlife]

um no i have a colony of about 7 pairs nesting across the drive on next doors house and 3 pairs on my own house same as every year. They are cleaning my feeders out pretty quickly too and they love waking my up at 5.30 every morning with their singing lol

[Zoundz]

We have about 100 here at any time... and they're a bit of a problem actually. In this part of West Cork they are just about *the* most common bird, and they are everywhere - and they keep decimating my feeders The other birds have all but stopped visiting now... does anyone have any tips for discouraging them from the feeders? What don't they eat? (is there anything!?) - we don't mind them, but we really would like to encourage the other birds back, so we'd like to discourage the sparrows as much as possible!

xx

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Zoundz

We have about 100 here at any time... and they're a bit of a problem actually. In this part of West Cork they are just about *the* most common bird, and they are everywhere - and they keep decimating my feeders The other birds have all but stopped visiting now... does anyone have any tips for discouraging them from the feeders? What don't they eat? (is there anything!?) - we don't mind them, but we really would like to encourage the other birds back, so we'd like to discourage the sparrows as much as possible!

xx

Just thought it might be worth mentioning that its actually house sparrows that need our feeding help the most.

Not sure what the status is in Ireland, but in England whereas the populations of common garden birds such as great tit or Chaffinch have remained relatively stable, those of House sparrow have massively decreased on a national scale and I'd urge people not to try to deter them.

There are no sparrows in my parent's garden now where there used to be a gang of 10 or 12 coming to the feeders when I was a child and its so sad, they were so entertaining to watch.

[AshLee]

They are doing well were I live in London. There are not hundreds, but they do seem to be breeding.

I wish them well!

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by AshLee

They are doing well were I live in London. There are not hundreds, but they do seem to be breeding.

I wish them well!

It is in London that the big population drop has become perhaps most graphically evident with the figures within Kensington Gardens dropping from over 2000 birds in the 1920s to less than 10 in 2000.

[Zoundz]

I'm afraid I don't know exact figures for this area myself, but I do know there are 100s in most rural areas, every house I've lived in over here has had massive populations. Certainly they seem to scare away just about every other species. We had a few less when we first moved here in February, but we put feeders out, attracted a lovely variety of birds, goldfinch, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, chaffinch, even had a blackcap visiting... and some others too - but now, all we see are sparrows, anything up to about 20 on the feeders at any one time, and only the occasional very strong willed blue or great tit dares to come close. It's a real shame. I've nothing against the sparrows, I think they're lovely little birds, but it is sad to see the other birds losing out so heavily, and they really don't seem quite so common around here. I even tried putting feeders in the trees next to the hedges where I know the sparrows spend most of their time, it didn't help - they empty all the feeders (about 7 of them at the moment) within about a day and a half They'll lose out anyway in the end, as I can't afford to keep filling the feeders at that rate - bird food is really quite expensive here!

xx

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Zoundz

I'm afraid I don't know exact figures for this area myself, but I do know there are 100s in most rural areas, every house I've lived in over here has had massive populations. Certainly they seem to scare away just about every other species. We had a few less when we first moved here in February, but we put feeders out, attracted a lovely variety of birds, goldfinch, great tit, blue tit, coal tit, chaffinch, even had a blackcap visiting... and some others too - but now, all we see are sparrows, anything up to about 20 on the feeders at any one time, and only the occasional very strong willed blue or great tit dares to come close. It's a real shame. I've nothing against the sparrows, I think they're lovely little birds, but it is sad to see the other birds losing out so heavily, and they really don't seem quite so common around here. I even tried putting feeders in the trees next to the hedges where I know the sparrows spend most of their time, it didn't help - they empty all the feeders (about 7 of them at the moment) within about a day and a half They'll lose out anyway in the end, as I can't afford to keep filling the feeders at that rate - bird food is really quite expensive here!

xx

Don't worry they're not losing out, now is the time that nature provides in bounty, the change of birds at your feeder has been caused by the change in season not the sparrrows.

Tits in particular will be hunting out insects, caterpillars and spiders and the like in preference to seeds in feeders (though will still occassionally come to feeders if they are placed close enough to nest or foraging habitat).