Sparrows

[DragsterRR]

I'm not big on noticing wildlife changes but...

Where have all the sparrows gone?
They used to be as common as pigeons.
I can't remember when I last saw one.

[TheForceV4]

Seemed have moved our of urban areas, I used see loads when I was a youngster, now none.
There do, however seem to still be loads out in the sticks

[Yertis]

We've got a sparrow family up in our eves, the fledglings have just come out and are being shown around the bird feeder by mum and dad. But apparently one of the (no doubt multiple) reasons for the decline is because people are hermetically sealing up their houses to save enegry and thus the environment, giving the house sparrows no where to set up home.

[marshalla]

They're all living in my hedge - thousands of them, and they've learned how to perch on the fat ball that hangs from the bird table.

[Audicab]

Same here, we seem to have hundreds of them in our hedge, constantly seem to be fighting with each other and they don't seem to get on with the Robins. Very amusing to watch though.

[Mr GrimNasty]

DragsterRR said:

I'm not big on noticing wildlife changes but...

Where have all the sparrows gone?
They used to be as common as pigeons.
I can't remember when I last saw one.

Sparrow populations do ebb and flow a lot. Also they tend to live in tight groups, the numbers may not be obvious if they just don't happen to be nesting/feeding in your area. They had all but vanished at one of my houses, now dozens. Always had dunnocks at another house, but never house sparrows, this year had loads of house sparrows too.

[Sheepshanks]

Haven't their numbers dropped something like 80% over the last few years?

[Mr GrimNasty]

The RSPB sort of agrees.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/disc...

My subjective opinion is that there has been a massive recovery of late - but just because I have massive flocks, doesn't mean everywhere does!

[Japveesix]

Sheepshanks said:

Haven't their numbers dropped something like 80% over the last few years?

Yup, they have dropped off hugely year on year for quite some time now. Similar story for starlings.

I'm not that old and even I remember starlings folks 50 odd strong landing in the garden, whereas my folks (who live just round the corner from the old place) are lucky to see 10 now.

You still see a lot of sparrows in slightly rougher areas, places with bigger gardens (ex-council) and overgrown hedges, and more importantly where the houses haven't been modernised and all access to nest sites under the eaves blocked off.

Both sparrows and starlings pretty much rely on nest sites in older houses under the eaves and where there aren't nest sites, in more modern urban areas, there are no birds.

We looked at a house in an ex-council area of Bristol the other day that was alive with bird activity and chatter (mostly sparrows), it was lovely.

[The_Burg]

Seems to be a huge increase here of sparrows and starlings.
Largish garden, not ex council and not scruffy.

[DragsterRR]

I'm in Rome this week.
Apparently they're all here.

[Mr GrimNasty]

Japveesix said:

Yup, they have dropped off hugely year on year for quite some time now. Similar story for starlings.

Theres's plagues of Starlings now too, there was loads in the 70s, tailed off, now back with a vengeance.

What sparrows and starlings have in common is that they are very social and flock together, so the actual population density can be easily misread.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

We have a big pyracantha bush in our back garden, probably about 10-12 feet tall. The sparrows love to perch in that - perhaps they feel secure in amongst all the spiny branches and foliage. They tend to come racing in en masse making a tremendous noise, and then settle down to their monotonous "cheep... cheep... cheep".

I've tried putting a couple of sparrow boxes up on the back wall of the house just below the upstairs windows amongst the foliage of the Virginia creeper - large nest boxes with three compartments each. But the sparrows have ignored them; we just occasionally get a bluetit nesting in them, but that's it.

[jmorgan]

In my limited idea of an ideal world I put up one nest box two years ago. Nothing. Then watching Springwatch and they suggest a communal nest box for sparrows.So I need to remedy that.

That said, the estate that I live on is around 10 years old now and the local trees and hedges are starting to get back to something decent and I am seeing a lot more birds in the area, especially in the last few years. A house down the way has house martins in the eves and it is sight to see when they are out feeding.

[Japveesix]

Mr GrimNasty said:

Japveesix said:

Yup, they have dropped off hugely year on year for quite some time now. Similar story for starlings.

Theres's plagues of Starlings now too, there was loads in the 70s, tailed off, now back with a vengeance.

I'm not going to argue with people on here but just because there are still starlings in your garden/area doesn't mean that there are plagues of them. This simply isn't true and there are all sorts of studies, data sets and longterm trends that show how serious the decline of these two species, and many others, is.

I'm sure you can research it yourself if you have any interest in doing so.

[robbocop33]

I'm from east central Scotland and i'm sick of the site of them lol,there's loads round my way.One thing that has puzzled me lately though is that wrens over the last couple of years have become an extremely regular site which i can't ever remember them being?But,last few months they've completely vanished??