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Bird Sightings: House Sparrow
House Sparrow
Passer domesticus
Gaelic : Gealbhonn, Glaisean
Photography © Frank Stark
Leurbost - Isle of Lewis - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
April, 2008"My Robin is incubating her eggs in my home made nest box ...how much pleasure you can get from creating the proper habitat for our wildlife!
I have also been building Nest boxes for House sparrows and Starlings and i am considering trying to get a pair of Dippers at Grimersta to use a box next year. All these plans but i never manage to find enough time to complete them."
Our sparrow phototographs :
malehouse sparrow
fledglinghouse sparrows
bathinghouse sparrow
at the nestbox
- House Sparrow
- AKA: Sparrow, Spug, Phillip Sparrow, Spadge, Spadger, Spuggy, Sporrow, Spaky, Spjugg, Sparrag, Spyug, Speug, Squidgie, Spadwick, Sparrer, Sprog, Brown Budgie
- Passer domesticus
- UK RED LIST. Resident breeder 2.9 million breeding pairs in summer (Declining) BTO
- Most widespread bird on the planet: Wherever man builds sparrows come or are introduced: Europe, Africa (sub-Sahara), Asia etc (in Australia it was introduced as pest control!)
- Nests under eaves, holes (masonry, rocks) in ivy etc, sea-cliffs, bushes
- Diet: Seeds and shoots, berries, scraps, butterfies, flowers (young mostly insect larvae), ground-feeder
- Male: grey crown, cheeks & below. Black on throat, upper breast & between bill & eyes. Bill in summer blue-black. Legs brown. In winter plumage dulled & bill yellowish-brown. Female has no black on head or throat, no grey crown; above streaked brown. Juveniles deeper brown, buff instead of white. Bill dull yellow. (Tree Sparrow has chestnut not grey crown, 2 wing bars, black patches on cheeks)
- Nests, feeds & roosts in communal colonies
- Max recorded age 19yrs 9mths, average 3yrs
- Listen to a house sparrow (RSPB site)
- Similar birds: tree sparrow
Two or more sparrows are called a tribe or a host of sparrows
A nest was found 1800ft down a coal mine shaft! (the birds lived on scraps provided by the miners)
Sparrows have a reputation for promiscuity, but a study showed illegitimacy amongst humans living in a block of flats runs at about the same rate as amongst the residents of a sparrow colony.
"All young House Sparrows look similar to adult females when they leave the nest. However they go through a moult during late summer/early autumn and young males take on the appearance of adult males only after this is completed. I thought I would mention this as some folk think all young House Sparrows are females! Another interesting fact...these birds do not moult their tail and flight feathers until the following year. They are easy prey as it is and this would only make them more vulnerable so nature gives them a wee helping hand by allowing them to hang on to these important feathers, giving them the best possible chance to evade Sparrowhawks etc"
Frank Stark
"Hi, we had sparrows nesting in our due-to-be demolished porch this summer and had to reschedule our plans (cancelled the builders). We forgot they the sparrows would have a second family and ended up having to cancel the builders a second time. Decided we quite liked the old porch in the end and are not going to pull it down after all! Are the sparrows likely to nest there next year?"
Katie M, Stornoway, 8th December 2007
Yes! and there are records of house sparrows having 4 broods in a single year...a female can lay 25 eggs in a year in some parts of the world.
Frank's web site of his nature photography
www.frankstark.com
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