2024 is the Year of the House Sparrow
2024 is the Year of the House Sparrow. Every year, Sovon and Vogelbescherming select a bird species that could use some extra attention. The house sparrow is one of the best-known and most numerous birds in our country. Because they are always together, it seems as if there are many house sparrows. Yet their numbers have halved since the 1970s.
House sparrow
The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a small songbird that, along with about thirty other sparrow species, including the tree sparrow, belongs to the genus Passer. The house sparrow eats mainly seeds and insects. The bird's song is generally limited to chirping. The house sparrow moves by flying or hopping. The sparrow is a resident bird: it usually stays living around the same place. The male is clearly distinguishable from the female, as the former is marked with blacker and browner skin.
Appearance
The house sparrow is 16 to 16,5 cm long and weighs 24 to 39,5 grams. The male has a grey crown, grey cheeks, a black throat and breast, a black mask with a white spot behind the eye, a white stripe across the wings, and a black bill during the breeding season. The female has less contrasting markings than the male, a light eye stripe, some markings on the back and wings, and a plain light grey/brown breast. During the moulting season, their plumage is sometimes barely recognizable as that of a house sparrow. Species that outwardly resemble the house sparrow and can be confused with it are the dunnock, the tree sparrow, the female chaffinch, and the Spanish sparrow. The latter is rarely found in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Reproduction and development
From January onwards, males search for suitable nesting sites and furnish them somewhat with dry grass. This usually consists of several nesting spots close together. A male that has started building a nest is recognizable by its black-colored beak, which is visible from January. If the potential nests are attractive enough, a female is sought by emitting the mating call heard on this page, but also by sitting in the nest and making sounds from there resembling those of young sparrows. As early as January, females show interest in specific nests and the associated male. The final choice of a particular nest may be delayed, partly because a courting male is easy prey and can simply disappear for that reason. The female chooses the final site from the offered locations. From that moment on, the sparrow pair jointly completes the nest. In it, the female lays one to nine eggs, but often four. After about 12 days of incubation, the eggs hatch.
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When the chicks hatch, they are still naked and blind and weigh no more than 3 grams. As soon as it gets dark for a moment and then light again, as happens when the parent bird sits in the entrance hole of the nest, they open their still relatively large beaks wide in the hope of getting food. During this first week, the chicks are fed small animal food by both parents. Depending on the availability of insects, they switch to plant-based food sooner or later. The longer insects are fed to the nestlings, the greater the chance that the young will remain healthy and alive. After about two weeks, the young fledge. After this, they remain dependent on the care of the parents for some time and are still fed regularly. The young are able to fend for themselves as soon as their beaks are hard enough to shell seeds. In the Netherlands, the first fledged young house sparrows have been observed in early April for several years in a row.
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Food and enemies
Adult house sparrows are grain and weed seed eaters and adapt easily to what is available. Grains such as oats, wheat, and barley are preferred. Because house sparrows do not have molars, grit is used to digest the seeds. House sparrows also eat vegetables, in the form of leaves from various plants and yellow crocuses, and fruit such as apples and apricots. Young house sparrows are mainly fed insects such as flies and mosquitoes by their parents. Feeding house sparrows is possible in principle all year round. For example, with pigeon or chicken feed, such as the inexpensive mixed grain with cracked corn. Stale bread is not very suitable due to the extra salt added to it. It is better to plant patches of herbs and grasses in gardens and parks. House sparrows can then obtain their food in a more natural way.
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[/one_half_last] Birds of prey such as the sparrowhawk, long-eared owl and barn owl, corvids such as the ekster and jay, woodpeckers and mammals such as the cat are (more or less) natural enemies of the house sparrow. Gulls, herons, and sometimes even chickens also do not easily pass up the opportunity to eat a young sparrow.
Spread
The house sparrow lives in large parts of the world, at least in almost all temperate and subtropical regions. The animal is often found close to or within human residential areas and is considered a commensal species. Part of its dispersal has occurred naturally, while the house sparrow has been actively spread by humans.
The house sparrow may have spread in prehistoric times by following the expansion of human agriculture. In North America, Australia, and New Zealand, the house sparrow was deliberately introduced in various locations between 1850 and 1870. In 1872, they were introduced in Buenos Aires, and in 1953 in Peru. In 1890, house sparrows were introduced in South Africa. In colder regions, such as around the Arctic Circle, the sparrow can survive thanks to the warm environment provided by humans. The house sparrow and the tree sparrow have a partially complementary distribution: where the house sparrow predominates, there are far fewer tree sparrows, and vice versa.
Juvenile house sparrows disperse over a larger area annually during the summer and autumn. This phenomenon is called dispersal. This can involve an exchange with juveniles from another colony, or it can be a new area to which they migrate. The greatest recorded distance ever covered by a juvenile house sparrow is 545 km.
However, German and British ringing studies show that 91% of reported house sparrows are found within a radius of 2 kilometers of their birthplace, and 6% at a distance of 2 to 7 kilometers. It should be noted, however, that for small songbirds like the house sparrow, only about 5% of ringed birds are reported back. How far the remaining 95% have dispersed is currently unknown. The above makes it clear that, under favorable conditions, a single house sparrow colony can repopulate the wider surrounding area with house sparrows.
Declining numbers
In the Netherlands, among other places, the house sparrow population has declined since the 1970s. In the 1970s, the number of breeding pairs was estimated at 1 to 2 million. Between 1990 and 2000, the number approximately halved. A decline is also evident in Flanders and the United Kingdom. However, since 2000, the number of breeding pairs of the house sparrow in the Netherlands appears to be stabilizing. Furthermore, it appears that in a new city like Almere, the situation for house sparrows is much more favorable than in an old city like Amsterdam, where declines of 90% have occurred. After the blackbird, the house sparrow is still the most common breeding bird in the Netherlands. Flourishing sparrow populations can also be found in other European countries. Internationally, the house sparrow is therefore not an endangered species and is listed on the IUCN list with the designation 'safe'. The causes of the decline in house sparrow numbers after 1980 are not well known. Mentioned are:
- other house construction (less suitable roof tile construction),
- other garden design (less privet hedges) and
- different urban layout (fewer wild patches of land)
Decrease in food supply due to, among other things:
- more efficient harvesting, storage and transport methods (less grain waste),
- the practice of shaking out tablecloths falling into disuse,
- the use of insecticides and substances such as MTBE in lead-free gasoline (fewer insects) and
- the decrease in green areas in cities (fewer insects).
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