20 Saturday Mar 2021
Posted in birds
For today’s celebration of the humble little House sparrow, I’m sharing a wonderful snippet of information tweeted this morning by the Welsh Ornithological Society:
‘We’re proud to say that Wales holds the longevity record for #HouseSparrow at 12 years and 12 days with a bird which was ringed in #Torfaen in 1966 and which was found dead in . . . Torfaen in 1978. A well-travelled individual!’
12 Saturday Dec 2020
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, house sparrow, Passer domesticus, sparrow, speug, vernacular names for sparrow
Craff, cuddy, grey spadger, roo-doo, sparr and sprug, spuggie and spurdie…. These are all regional names for the sparrow, both the House sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the Tree sparrow (Passer montanus). My ex, a Lanarkshire Scotsman, called it a speug, so that name is one I still sometimes use. And I’m sure many of you will have your own names for this little bird, one of our most common urban garden companions.
08 Saturday Dec 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, house sparrow, pampas grass, Penarth marina, sparrow, toetoe
At one end of my regular walk along the embankment of the Ely River where it flows in to Cardiff Bay, near the entrance to Penarth Marina, is a huge stand of what I presume is a type of pampas grass. I always look at it, partly because it reminds me of my New Zealand home (where we would call this by the Maori name Toetoe) and partly because it is often covered in House sparrows.
The birds seem to adore this grass. The sturdy stems provide convenient perches on which to sit and cheep their continuous sparrow conversations, and they pluck away at the fluffy plumes, presumably extracting edible seeds to munch on. And, when threatened by the local ginger-and-white cat, which is frequently to be seen staring hungrily in their direction, the sparrows can easily flit into the dense vegetation of the grass clump to escape the cat’s clutches.
11 Wednesday Oct 2017
‘I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau. I have not shared Thoreau’s privileged occurrence but I do enjoy watching and listening to sparrows, like these two juveniles seen recently at Forest Farm.
20 Sunday Mar 2016
Posted in birds, nature, nature photography
Tags
birding, birds, birdwatching, British birds, Cambodia sparrow, house sparrow, New Zealand sparrow, Red list, rufous-collared sparrow, sparrow, Tanzanian sparrow
I miss sparrows.
In my homeland, New Zealand, they are probably the most common and well known bird, though the New Zealand sparrow is not a native – it was introduced there several times between 1866 and 1871, and has clearly made itself at home. Sparrows were also familiar birds during the time I lived in Peru and in Cambodia but, here in Wales, I seldom see them, because, in recent years, the humble house sparrow (Passer domesticus domesticus) has undergone a huge decline in Britain. And I do mean huge – the British Trust for Ornithology website reports that the population has declined by 71% since 1977, possibly due to loss of habitat but also to a decline in the insects adult birds feed their young. The house sparrow is now on Britain’s red list, as a bird of the highest conservation concern.
Around the world there are 26 species of house sparrow, native to Europe, Asia and north-west Africa. There are also American sparrows (from a separate family, the Emberizidae) and birds with similar names, like the Java sparrow (also a different family, the Estrildidae). Still, the world would be much the poorer if it lost the lovely British house sparrow, so it is gratifying to know that various wildlife organisations are working to improve its situation and increase its population. Today, let’s celebrate the humble sparrow!
female (left) and male (right) New Zealand sparrows
a sparrow in Cambodia
left, a sparrow in Tanzania (far too busy gathering nest materials to pose for a photo), and, right, a rufous-collared sparrow in Peru
earthstar 
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