Common sparrows at my winter bird feeder

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Sunday, February 13. 2011

Common sparrows at my winter bird feeder

Diligent students of Maggie's Farm have had the chance, over the years, to become familiar with many of the common birds of North America - or at least of the Eastern US. The common winter sparrows around my parts (not including Junco, which is a sparrow):

In winter at my feeder, I mainly see Song Sparrow

and White Throated Sparrow:

In some winters, we get a surge of Fox Sparrows, but not this year. This year, though, I have seen more Tree Sparrows than ever (that's the American Tree Sparrow, not the Eurasian):

The Chipping Sparrow is common here in the summer, but migrates south. I rarely see a Field Sparrow anymore these days. No idea why. Never see White Crowned Sparrow at my feeder either.

This is the common urban pest, once called the English Sparrow (they were a nasty import from Old Blighty):

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 11:16 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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The house sparrow is a reliable source of bird sounds, year around.

Their first brood in the spring always winds up as Starling protein.

The Starlings go from birdhouse to birdhouse one after another, checking for anything edible each day.

By second brood time, the Starlings are finding food elsewhere and the house sparrows can start families.

Incidentally, I don't understand how house sparrow fledglings survive; their first flight is not a fall to the ground but an extended voyage of several hundred yards.

Who is feeding them out there?

I mean the one that survives, on the average.

#1 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-02-13 11:37 (Reply)

This is the common urban pest, once called the English Sparrow (they were an import from Old Blighty)

Oh yeah, recognise him!

We got your squirrels in exchange, by the way, and they've overrun the place!

#2 billm99uk on 2011-02-13 11:38 (Reply)

Those house the Starlings are snatching the babies from are the ones the house sparrows stole from the bluebirds. I put up about eight bluebird houses and usually get one inhabited by bluebirds. Also have seen the house sparrows peck a female tree swallow to death because she refused to get off her nest and get out of the house.

#3 linda s on 2011-02-13 12:05 (Reply)

I'm unable to stir up hatred of the House Sparrow. Every species is predatory.

The survival rate of fledglings is practically zero everywhere. Everybody gets eaten, except two over the breeding lifetime of a pair.

With (what?) four broods of five a year, say breeding 3 years, that's 2 in 60 fledglings survive to adulthood, more or less, if the population is stable.

The food chain rules.

In the meantime, you get cheerful bird noises from the successful species.

#3.1 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-02-13 13:26 (Reply)

You can import Grackles. They eat house sparrow heads.

#3.2 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-02-13 18:54 (Reply)

And they will eat everything else, too. Grackles are the least welcome birds.

As for sparrows, I'm sure we have SBBs here (small brown birds), but it's the small gray birds who seem to dominate. Titmouses, black-capped chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches.

#3.2.1 diane on 2011-02-13 19:09 (Reply)

Read somewhere a while back that the English sparrow is neither English nor a sparrow but a Mediterranean finch.
I extinguish as many as I can each spring along with starlings and cowbirds.
Two years ago I saw a loggerhead shrike attack another bird near one of our bluebird houses so I ran over there. I was sorry I broke up the fight 'cuz it turned out he was beating the snot out of an English sparrow.

#4 Jack on 2011-02-13 15:10 (Reply)

You birding pictures are somehow a wonderful refuge from the turmoil of the world's events. I really enjoy them.

#5 Habu on 2011-02-13 15:39 (Reply)

The English House Sparrow is a very aggressive bird and will chase off the native species where ever they are. It is said that because of the design of their beaks they cannot easily eat sunflower seeds thus they avoid them when possible. Black sunflower oil seeds are also the most nutritious seeds you can feed the birds and should be what you use in cold winter months. For that reason black sunflower oil seeds were all that the wife and I put in our feeders. We never had many House Sparrows to our feeders but our neighbors did so I guess its true.

#6 Bob Devine on 2011-02-13 18:06 (Reply)

Today there's one less Vesper Sparrow in the Las Vegas valley, courtesy of our yearling tabby.

#7 Wirraway on 2011-02-13 22:15 (Reply)

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Sunday, February 13. 2011

Common sparrows at my winter bird feeder