We have so many of these cheerful, chatty, social birds in our garden. They call their thanks as soon as I start putting out the bird seed and fat balls in the morning, flying in from neighbouring gardens, flicking their tails, and fluttering their wings in anticipation of the feast. They are here all year round, keeping the garden alive and busy throughout the winter.
The house sparrow loves to be near
human habitation and often nests in holes in the walls of our houses. We have left
holes specially for the sparrows and they fill them up readily.
They are very social and will nest
together in a hole. We certainly see many flying from the same entrance. They
stuff their nesting hole with dried vegetation until it is almost full and then
line it with finer materials such as feathers, string, and paper.
They have two to three clutches in
the breeding season which is from April to August. They lay three to five eggs
and both parents raise the young, filling their hungry beaks with insects such
as aphids, beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers until they fledge after
about fifteen days.
They can live four to five years.
The house sparrow is a small bird,
about 16 cm in length and it weighs in at between 24 and 39 grams.
The females and young are a pale
brown and grey. The males have stronger black, white, and brown markings. They
have white wing bars, black bibs, and brown caps, and silver grey bellies, I
think they are rather handsome. They are often overlooked or dismissed as their
colour is nothing special and there are many of them, but it doesn’t take much
to devastate a species and they are in decline. Between 1994 and 2001 London
saw a decline of 75 percent. This is scary. Luckily the decline has slowed and
in some areas the population of sparrows in the UK is on the rise again. I would miss them terribly if they were to
diminish.
Cats, hawks, and mammals all enjoy munching on house sparrows so appreciate them while you can and ensure they have safe spaces to eat and sleep.
The house sparrow is native to most of Europe and Asia but was introduced to Africa, America and Australasia. Whether this was intentional or accidental I don’t know, but they seem to have settled into these habitats well making them the most widespread wild bird in the world.
They feed mainly on seeds of grains and wildflowers, and insects, but will eat other foods too. I love to watch them eating the seeds and fat balls in my garden, often in a crowd. They catch insects in the air, as well as following lawnmowers and visiting lights at dusk. Clever birds.
I like to watch them hop around the
garden, following the blackbirds as they toss bark, hoping for a free morsal.
They enjoy a communal splash and bath in our new pond too, leaving feathers
floating on the surface.
They fly at about 24 miles per hour, but when in a hurry they can fly at 31 miles per hour. Wow, that’s fast and explains those zipping by moments when I’m not sure what has just flown by the window.
They call and sing all year with a variety of chirping and chattering ‘chelp–chrup’ often as a choir, filling the garden with cheerful sound.
They have several non-verbal means
of communicating, like humans, and a nervous sparrow flicks its tail, if
aggravated they crouch low, shove their head forward, partially open their
wings and hold their tail erect. To show their dominance they lift their wings,
fan open their tail and open their beak.
When males display to females they
fluff up their chest, hold their wings partially open, fan their tail, hop, and
bow.
I love learning about these birds
and shall be watching the sparrows in my garden carefully to interpret their
moods.
As usual there is folklore and superstition surrounding these small birds.
Modern thinking – they symbolise
joy, community, teamwork, protection, hard work and self-worth.
Middle-ages in Europe - they represented
peasants and lower-class people probably because there were so many of them.
Celtic – they were thought to be
keepers of old knowledge.
Indonesia – If a sparrow flies into
your house there will be a birth or wedding in the family.
China – a sparrow flying through the
house is an omen of good luck.
European old folklore – A sparrow in
the house was an omen of death.
Egyptian – sailors got tattoos of
sparrows so the bird could catch their souls if they died at sea and take them
back to land.
Ancient Greek – sparrows were a
symbol of love, and the sparrow was the sacred bird of Aphrodite
Here’s an Indian moral tale.
Panchatantra Story- The Sparrow and
the Elephant
Once upon a time there lived a
sparrow and her husband in a tree. They had built a lovely nest and she laid
some eggs.
One morning a wild elephant was
searching for shade and in a rage broke the branch of the tree where the nest
rested. The eggs were broken, and the nest destroyed.
The she-sparrow was distraught.
Her woodpecker friend said she’d
find a way to kill the elephant in revenge. She asked her friend the gnat who
asked the wise frog for advice. The frog made a plan.
The gnat buzzed in the elephant’s
ear, the elephant loved the sound and closed his eyes. The woodpecker pecked
out it’s eyes and the frog croaked, luring the elephant not to a pond but to a
pit and the elephant fell in and died.
Pretty gruesome story to illustrate using
wit to overcome brute force. There are other dark tales too by the Brother’s
Grim and Aesop, but I’m not repeating them here.
I prefer to watch the birds in my garden and enjoy their simple lives.
It’s not hard to provide a safe
space for these birds in your garden.
Providing nesting sites, such as holes in walls, nesting boxes and scruffy hedges is easy, so is growing native plants with seed heads, avoiding the use of pesticides, hanging fat balls, and scattering seeds in the garden. A little action can have large consequences.
Hopefully these fun, chatty, social
birds will continue to live in our gardens, bringing smiles to our faces and
diversity to our lives.
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