Maggie's Farm

That's what our pal Roger's wife terms them. English Sparrow, aka House Sparrow, aka Dumpster Birds, were imported from England in the early 1800s to help clean the NYC streets of horse manure and other detritus.

Their population spread rapidly.

They are not sparrows, they are a sort of european finch. Like rats, they are highly adapted to live amongst civilization, and can never be found in woods or meadows but they like working barns.

This morning, I ripped up a large loaf of stale bread and tossed it in the driveway to do my version of Loaves and Fishes, without the fish. Within 15 minutes, the MacDonalds birds arrived. Their activity attracted a bunch of Grackles (native to North America), and then a handful of hungry Red Wing Blackbirds. A few chipmunks came out for breakfast, and finally a couple of Blue Jays. A Mourning Dove stopped by to have a taste. I fed multitudes. In 2 hours, it was all cleaned up.

Photo is a female. You can see that they have a finch bill, not a sparrow's.