House Sparrow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
House Sparrow
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Passeriformes
Family:
Passeridae
Genus:
Passer
Species:
P. domesticus
Binomial name
Passer domesticus
(Linnaeus,
1758)
The House Sparrow (Passer
domesticus) is a member of the Old World sparrow family Passeridae. 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 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.
This 14 to 16 centimetre
long bird is abundant in temperate climates, but not universally common; in
many hilly districts it is scarce. In cities, towns and villages, even around
isolated farms, it can be the most abundant bird.
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.
The House Sparrow is
gregarious at all seasons in its nesting colonies, when feeding and in communal
roosts.
Although the Sparrows'
young are fed on the larvae of insects, often destructive species, this species
eats seeds, including grain where it is available.
In spring, flowers
especially those with yellow colours are often eaten; crocuses, primroses and
aconites seem to attract the house sparrow most. The bird will also hunt butterflies.
The Sparrow's most common
call is a short and incessant chirp. It also has a double call note phillip
which originated the now obsolete name of "phillip sparrow". While
the young are in their nests, the older birds utter a long churr. At least
three broods are reared in the season.
Female
Male
Juvenile
NestingThe nesting site is varied;
under eaves, in holes in masonry or rocks, in ivy or creepers on houses or
banks, on the sea-cliffs, or in bushes in bays and inlets. When built in holes
or ivy, the nest is an untidy litter of straw and rubbish, abundantly filled
with feathers. Large, well-constructed domed nests are often built when the
bird nests in trees or shrubs, especially rural areas.
The House Sparrow is quite
aggressive in usurping the nesting sites of other birds, often forcibly
evicting the previous occupants, and sometimes even building a new nest
directly on top of another active nest with live nestlings. House Martins, Bluebirds,
and Sand Martins are especially susceptible to this behavior. However, though
this tendency has occasionally been observed in its native habitats
(particularly concerning House Martins), it appears to be far more common in
habitats in which it has been introduced, such as the U.S.
Five to six eggs, profusely
dusted, speckled or blotched with black, brown or ash-grey on a blue-tinted or
creamy white ground, are usual types of the very variable eggs. They are
variable in size and shape as well as markings. Eggs are incubated by the
female. The House Sparrow has the shortest incubation period of all the birds:
10-12 days and a female can lay 25 eggs a summer in New England.
House
Sparrows in Europe
In large parts of Europe,
populations of House Sparrows are decreasing. In the Netherlands, the House
Sparrow is even considered an endangered species. It is however still the
second most common breeding bird in the Netherlands, after the Blackbird. The
population of House Sparrows has halved in the period around 1980 till now. Currently
the number of breeding pairs is estimated at half a million to 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 were built without roof
tiles, or the construction of the roofs was 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, less grain was spilt 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 can be eaten by
sparrows;
- More efficient building in cities resulted
in less rough areas within cities where the birds could find food;
- It became less usual in households to
shake the tablecloths outside after meals;
- Changes in gardening fashions left fewer
suitable nesting spots for sparrows.
House
Sparrows in North America
While declining somewhat in
their adopted homeland, house sparrows are still possibly the most abundant
bird in the United States, with a population estimated as high as 400 million.
In the United States, the
House Sparrow is one of three birds not protected by law (the others are the European
Starling and Rock Pigeon, also introduced species). House Sparrows sometimes
kill adult Bluebirds and other native cavity nesters and their young and smash
their eggs. The House Sparrow is partially responsible for a decline of Eastern
Bluebirds in the United States.
House Sparrows often take
over unmonitored nestboxes and Purple Martin houses in the United States. This
invasion has led many nestbox monitors in the United States to trap or shoot
the adults and take their eggs in order to allow native species to reproduce. European
Starlings are aggressive enough to take nests from House Sparrows in the United
States if the entrance hole is big enough for them to fit through.
Photo gallery
Sitting on a tree
Male House Sparrows
Female House Sparrow
House Sparrow chick
in
literature
The Roman poet Catullus
addresses one of his odes to his lover Lesbia's pet sparrow (Passer,
deliciae meae puellae...), and writes an elegy on its death (Lugete, o
Veneres Cupidinesque...). The sparrow's playful erotic intimacy with its
mistress ('To whose seeking she often gives her first finger/And provokes sharp
pecks') makes the poet envious. At the climax of its elegy he reproaches it for
dying, and distressing her ('Now, by your deeds, my girl's/Little eyes are
slightly swollen and red from weeping'). The diminutiveness of the sparrow, and
the hugeness and eternity of the afterlife, form a bathos that is typical of
the mock elegy form: qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum/illuc unde
negant redire quemquam ('He now goes on a journey through that gloomy
place,/From where they say no one returns'). Note how the sparrow's hopping is
represented metrically. The bird is also alluded to in the line "He who
lives by the stick, dies by the stick" in James Wilson's "The Stick
Finch".
In Phyllyp Sparowe (pub. c.
1505), by the English poet John Skelton, Jane Scrope's laments for her dead
sparrow are mixed with antiphonal Latin liturgy from the Office of the Dead. It
belongs to the same tradition as Catullus' poem, or Ovid's lament for a parrot
in the Amores, but the erotic element is more direct: 'And on me it
wolde lepe/Whan I was aslepe,/And his fethers shake,/Wherewith he wolde make/Me
often for to wake/And for to take him in/Upon my naked skyn'.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Passer
domesticus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006.
Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why
this species is of least concern
- Passer domesticus (TSN
179628). Integrated
Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 9 February 2006.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_Sparrow&action=history
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Passer domesticus |
The House Sparrow (Passer
domesticus) is a member of the Old World sparrow family Passeridae. 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 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.
This 14 to 16 centimetre
long bird is abundant in temperate climates, but not universally common; in
many hilly districts it is scarce. In cities, towns and villages, even around
isolated farms, it can be the most abundant bird.
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.
The House Sparrow is
gregarious at all seasons in its nesting colonies, when feeding and in communal
roosts.
Although the Sparrows'
young are fed on the larvae of insects, often destructive species, this species
eats seeds, including grain where it is available.
In spring, flowers
especially those with yellow colours are often eaten; crocuses, primroses and
aconites seem to attract the house sparrow most. The bird will also hunt butterflies.
The Sparrow's most common
call is a short and incessant chirp. It also has a double call note phillip
which originated the now obsolete name of "phillip sparrow". While
the young are in their nests, the older birds utter a long churr. At least
three broods are reared in the season.
|
Female |
|
Male |
|
Juvenile |
NestingThe nesting site is varied;
under eaves, in holes in masonry or rocks, in ivy or creepers on houses or
banks, on the sea-cliffs, or in bushes in bays and inlets. When built in holes
or ivy, the nest is an untidy litter of straw and rubbish, abundantly filled
with feathers. Large, well-constructed domed nests are often built when the
bird nests in trees or shrubs, especially rural areas.
The House Sparrow is quite
aggressive in usurping the nesting sites of other birds, often forcibly
evicting the previous occupants, and sometimes even building a new nest
directly on top of another active nest with live nestlings. House Martins, Bluebirds,
and Sand Martins are especially susceptible to this behavior. However, though
this tendency has occasionally been observed in its native habitats
(particularly concerning House Martins), it appears to be far more common in
habitats in which it has been introduced, such as the U.S.
Five to six eggs, profusely
dusted, speckled or blotched with black, brown or ash-grey on a blue-tinted or
creamy white ground, are usual types of the very variable eggs. They are
variable in size and shape as well as markings. Eggs are incubated by the
female. The House Sparrow has the shortest incubation period of all the birds:
10-12 days and a female can lay 25 eggs a summer in New England.
House
Sparrows in Europe
In large parts of Europe,
populations of House Sparrows are decreasing. In the Netherlands, the House
Sparrow is even considered an endangered species. It is however still the
second most common breeding bird in the Netherlands, after the Blackbird. The
population of House Sparrows has halved in the period around 1980 till now. Currently
the number of breeding pairs is estimated at half a million to 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 were built without roof
tiles, or the construction of the roofs was 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, less grain was spilt 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 can be eaten by
sparrows;
- More efficient building in cities resulted
in less rough areas within cities where the birds could find food;
- It became less usual in households to
shake the tablecloths outside after meals;
- Changes in gardening fashions left fewer
suitable nesting spots for sparrows.
House
Sparrows in North America
While declining somewhat in
their adopted homeland, house sparrows are still possibly the most abundant
bird in the United States, with a population estimated as high as 400 million.
In the United States, the
House Sparrow is one of three birds not protected by law (the others are the European
Starling and Rock Pigeon, also introduced species). House Sparrows sometimes
kill adult Bluebirds and other native cavity nesters and their young and smash
their eggs. The House Sparrow is partially responsible for a decline of Eastern
Bluebirds in the United States.
House Sparrows often take
over unmonitored nestboxes and Purple Martin houses in the United States. This
invasion has led many nestbox monitors in the United States to trap or shoot
the adults and take their eggs in order to allow native species to reproduce. European
Starlings are aggressive enough to take nests from House Sparrows in the United
States if the entrance hole is big enough for them to fit through.
Photo gallery
Sitting on a tree
Male House Sparrows
Female House Sparrow
House Sparrow chick
in
literature
The Roman poet Catullus
addresses one of his odes to his lover Lesbia's pet sparrow (Passer,
deliciae meae puellae...), and writes an elegy on its death (Lugete, o
Veneres Cupidinesque...). The sparrow's playful erotic intimacy with its
mistress ('To whose seeking she often gives her first finger/And provokes sharp
pecks') makes the poet envious. At the climax of its elegy he reproaches it for
dying, and distressing her ('Now, by your deeds, my girl's/Little eyes are
slightly swollen and red from weeping'). The diminutiveness of the sparrow, and
the hugeness and eternity of the afterlife, form a bathos that is typical of
the mock elegy form: qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum/illuc unde
negant redire quemquam ('He now goes on a journey through that gloomy
place,/From where they say no one returns'). Note how the sparrow's hopping is
represented metrically. The bird is also alluded to in the line "He who
lives by the stick, dies by the stick" in James Wilson's "The Stick
Finch".
In Phyllyp Sparowe (pub. c.
1505), by the English poet John Skelton, Jane Scrope's laments for her dead
sparrow are mixed with antiphonal Latin liturgy from the Office of the Dead. It
belongs to the same tradition as Catullus' poem, or Ovid's lament for a parrot
in the Amores, but the erotic element is more direct: 'And on me it
wolde lepe/Whan I was aslepe,/And his fethers shake,/Wherewith he wolde make/Me
often for to wake/And for to take him in/Upon my naked skyn'.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Passer
domesticus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006.
Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why
this species is of least concern
- Passer domesticus (TSN
179628). Integrated
Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 9 February 2006.
The nesting site is varied;
under eaves, in holes in masonry or rocks, in ivy or creepers on houses or
banks, on the sea-cliffs, or in bushes in bays and inlets. When built in holes
or ivy, the nest is an untidy litter of straw and rubbish, abundantly filled
with feathers. Large, well-constructed domed nests are often built when the
bird nests in trees or shrubs, especially rural areas.
The House Sparrow is quite
aggressive in usurping the nesting sites of other birds, often forcibly
evicting the previous occupants, and sometimes even building a new nest
directly on top of another active nest with live nestlings. House Martins, Bluebirds,
and Sand Martins are especially susceptible to this behavior. However, though
this tendency has occasionally been observed in its native habitats
(particularly concerning House Martins), it appears to be far more common in
habitats in which it has been introduced, such as the U.S.
Five to six eggs, profusely
dusted, speckled or blotched with black, brown or ash-grey on a blue-tinted or
creamy white ground, are usual types of the very variable eggs. They are
variable in size and shape as well as markings. Eggs are incubated by the
female. The House Sparrow has the shortest incubation period of all the birds:
10-12 days and a female can lay 25 eggs a summer in New England.
House
Sparrows in Europe
In large parts of Europe,
populations of House Sparrows are decreasing. In the Netherlands, the House
Sparrow is even considered an endangered species. It is however still the
second most common breeding bird in the Netherlands, after the Blackbird. The
population of House Sparrows has halved in the period around 1980 till now. Currently
the number of breeding pairs is estimated at half a million to 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 were built without roof
tiles, or the construction of the roofs was 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, less grain was spilt 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 can be eaten by
sparrows;
- More efficient building in cities resulted
in less rough areas within cities where the birds could find food;
- It became less usual in households to
shake the tablecloths outside after meals;
- Changes in gardening fashions left fewer
suitable nesting spots for sparrows.
House
Sparrows in North America
While declining somewhat in
their adopted homeland, house sparrows are still possibly the most abundant
bird in the United States, with a population estimated as high as 400 million.
In the United States, the
House Sparrow is one of three birds not protected by law (the others are the European
Starling and Rock Pigeon, also introduced species). House Sparrows sometimes
kill adult Bluebirds and other native cavity nesters and their young and smash
their eggs. The House Sparrow is partially responsible for a decline of Eastern
Bluebirds in the United States.
House Sparrows often take
over unmonitored nestboxes and Purple Martin houses in the United States. This
invasion has led many nestbox monitors in the United States to trap or shoot
the adults and take their eggs in order to allow native species to reproduce. European
Starlings are aggressive enough to take nests from House Sparrows in the United
States if the entrance hole is big enough for them to fit through.
Photo gallery
|
Sitting on a tree |
Male House Sparrows |
Female House Sparrow |
House Sparrow chick |
in
literature
The Roman poet Catullus
addresses one of his odes to his lover Lesbia's pet sparrow (Passer,
deliciae meae puellae...), and writes an elegy on its death (Lugete, o
Veneres Cupidinesque...). The sparrow's playful erotic intimacy with its
mistress ('To whose seeking she often gives her first finger/And provokes sharp
pecks') makes the poet envious. At the climax of its elegy he reproaches it for
dying, and distressing her ('Now, by your deeds, my girl's/Little eyes are
slightly swollen and red from weeping'). The diminutiveness of the sparrow, and
the hugeness and eternity of the afterlife, form a bathos that is typical of
the mock elegy form: qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum/illuc unde
negant redire quemquam ('He now goes on a journey through that gloomy
place,/From where they say no one returns'). Note how the sparrow's hopping is
represented metrically. The bird is also alluded to in the line "He who
lives by the stick, dies by the stick" in James Wilson's "The Stick
Finch".
In Phyllyp Sparowe (pub. c.
1505), by the English poet John Skelton, Jane Scrope's laments for her dead
sparrow are mixed with antiphonal Latin liturgy from the Office of the Dead. It
belongs to the same tradition as Catullus' poem, or Ovid's lament for a parrot
in the Amores, but the erotic element is more direct: 'And on me it
wolde lepe/Whan I was aslepe,/And his fethers shake,/Wherewith he wolde make/Me
often for to wake/And for to take him in/Upon my naked skyn'.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Passer
domesticus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006.
Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why
this species is of least concern
- Passer domesticus (TSN
179628). Integrated
Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 9 February 2006.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_Sparrow&action=history