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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Not the greatest photo in the world but I like the colors brought out by the late afternoon light. It also amused me as the two lady Sparrows on the left seem to be having a whispered conversation, sharing the latest gossip about "Those Two Over There" on the right. Well, I'm easily amused anyway.. ;-)
There must have been a bumper crop of House Sparrows this year in Lincolnshire where we were visting relatives; I counted close to twenty of these feathered visitors queued up at just one of their feeders.
Information below is from Wikipedia.
The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a member of the Old World sparrow family Passeridae, and is, somewhat controversially, considered a relative of the Weaver Finch Family. It occurs naturally in most of Europe and much of Asia. It has also followed humans all over the world and has been intentionally or accidentally introduced to most of the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand and Australia as well as urban areas in other parts of the world.
In the United States it is also known as the English Sparrow, to distinguish it from native species, as the large North American population is descended from birds deliberately imported from Britain in the late 19th century. They were introduced independently in a number of American cities in the years between 1850 and 1875 as a means of pest control.
Wherever people build, House Sparrows sooner or later come to share their abodes. Though described as tame and semi-domestic, neither is strictly true; humans provide food and home, not companionship. The House Sparrow remains wary of man. A more proper term is 'synanthropic'.
In large parts of Europe, populations of House Sparrows are decreasing. In the Netherlands, the House Sparrow is even considered an endangered species, and the population of House Sparrows has dropped in half since the 1980s. It is however still the second most common breeding bird in the Netherlands, after the Blackbird. . Currently the number of breeding pairs is estimated between half a million and one million. Similar precipitous drops in population have also been recorded in the United Kingdom.
Various causes for its dramatic decrease in population have been proposed:
More and more houses ahave been built without roof tiles, and the construction of the roofs were so well done, that the sparrows did not have space left for building their nests;
Decades ago, when the horse and carriage were replaced by cars, much less grain was spilled in the streets;
Agricultural changes: often other crops than corn and grain were cultivated, and more insecticides were used, which meant a decrease of the number of insects that could be eaten by sparrows;
More efficient building in cities resulted in fewer undeveloped areas within cities where the birds could find food; It became less common in households to shake the tablecloths outside after meals;
Changes in gardening fashions left fewer suitable nesting spots for sparrows.
The male House Sparrow has a grey crown, cheeks and underparts, black on the throat, upper breast and between the bill and eyes. The bill in summer is blue-black, and the legs are brown. In winter the plumage is dulled by pale edgings, and the bill is yellowish brown. The female has no black on head or throat, nor a grey crown; her upperparts are streaked with brown. The juveniles are deeper brown, and the white is replaced by buff; the beak is dull yellow. The House Sparrow is often confused with the smaller and slimmer Tree Sparrow, which, however, has a chestnut and not grey crown, two distinct wing bars, and a black patch on each cheek. |
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