HOUSE SPARROWS

      One late afternoon in the middle of December, 2022, I was sitting in a car in the parking lot of a shopping mall waiting for friends.  Suddenly, I saw a little whirlwind of birds flitting and scrambling low to the blacktop, right beside the car I was in.  They were house sparrows, looking for edible tidbits from careless shoppers among parked cars.  When something edible was found, several of those little brown birds would flutter to that food and compete vigorously with each other for it.

     Although American crows, ring-billed gulls, rock pigeons and starlings can also be spotted looking for food on parking lots at times, that afternoon I saw only house sparrows.  But they put on a show.

     We have a suburban lawn full of house sparrows the year around; which is fine with me.  Some people don't like these weaver finches from Eurasia that were introduced to the United States over a hundred years ago.  But I do.  They liven human-made habitats in cities, suburbs and farmyards across the country, habitats where few other species of wildlife will even venture.

     Plain, sparrow-sized birds, house sparrows are adaptable, lively and interesting backyard neighbors, the year around.  Young birds and females are brown with darker streaking on their backs and wings, which camouflages them.  Adult males in summer, however, have black "bibs" on their throats and chests, gray crowns and chestnut on their heads and wings, making them quite handsome.

    House sparrows don't sing, but they chirp cheerfully, and a lot, adding to their charm.  Flocks of them come to bird feeders the year around, but also consume insects and spiders during warmer months and the seeds of grasses and weeds in winter, making them beneficial in human-made environments.  They even eat Japanese beetles. 

     These common, little birds of built habitats nest anywhere that protects their young from weather and predators.  They build bulky nurseries of dried grass in the crevices of various kinds of buildings, and bird boxes and other constructions.

     Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks, and house cats prey on house sparrows, creating a little excitement in the back yard.  The hawks barrel across the lawn from hiding in coniferous trees and the house sparrows dive into bushes, or zip away in flight to escape being caught, killed and ingested.  Some of the hawks scramble through the shrubbery after their prey.  The cats generally ambush the sparrows from hide-outs on the ground.  These predators are quick, which is necessary to catch prey.     

     Though aliens to America, plain and not songsters, house sparrows are still lively, welcome birds on my lawn.  They are delightful, cheering neighbors around home.       

     

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