Educate Yourself About the House Sparrow and Other Sparrows
House Sparrow
The House Sparrow has a stout black beak, black throat and bib, chestnut nape, short tail, and short wings. Its length is 6in (15cm) Its wingspan is 9in (23cm)
Its voice is a song of a monotonous series of nearly identical chirps; the call is a husky “fillip”. Their eggs are white or greenish white, with brown and grey dots and spots.
They have 2-3 clutches of 5 (4-6) eggs. Female incubates for 10-13 days and fledging for around 14-17 days. Both male and female feed their young. Male and female look alike.
The House Sparrow was first introduced into Brooklyn, New York in 1951, and spread rapidly to the West Coast, and has since then become the most abundant bird in North America. Why they have done so well, is because of their close connections to humans, and the food and housing we inadvertently provide for them.
This native European and Northern African bird, can sometimes be hard to spot from other sparrows, because of their close resembles to each other. The way to tell them apart is mostly through their incredibly diverse songs and voices. The males and female House Sparrows look almost alike, except that the female is a little smaller, and more tan in color, with a light stripe through the eye.
Most sparrows shun deep woods, preferring meadows, fields, shrub-plantings and hedgerows. They thrive in the cities, suburbs, and agricultural areas, where they feed on sidewalk crumbs and spilled grain. They will typically build their nests in human housing, like air vents, and other cracks or cavities, like their name suggests, that consists of grass, paper, feathers, plastic, and other debris.
Sometimes they will build nests near each other, and create small colonies, and in more rural areas they will aggressively compete with native cavity-nesting birds, such as the Purple Martins, the Tree Swallows and Bluebirds. They will already have claimed nest boxes and natural cavities, before the migrant birds have even returned from their wintering areas. They are also aggressive enough to take over already occupied nest boxes, destroying the eggs and nestling's.
The House Sparrow eats mostly on the ground, feeding on spilled seeds and grains from bird feeders, and on other small insects. If you like to keep the abundance of sparrows down a little, fill your hanging bird feeders, and bird tables with sunflower seeds, witch they will have a hard time cracking.
Witch native sparrows you will find in your bird feeding garden will first depend on what part of the country you live in, and second what kind of habitat you provide for them. Here are some sparrows from different part of the country: The Grasshopper, Savannah, and the Vesper sparrows like a meadow garden, weedy fields, or patches of prairie wildflowers and grasses in just about any area. For the Lark, Three, and White-crowned Sparrows, west of the Mississippi, plant a hedgerow along the field. Change a grassy field into Sagebrush, and you will find the Brewer’s Sparrow a great home. The Fox Sparrow will spend fall and winter in southern bird feeding gardens, but will move north of the Mason-Dixon Line come spring.
If you like to attract House Sparrows to your lovely bird feeding garden, leave a part of your lawn uncut, and let the grass and weeds grow high, for shelter and grass seeds. The Sparrows love to peck at goldenrod, ragweed, pigweed, and foxtail grass. Fill your hanging birdfeeders and bird tables, with the small, nutritious millet seeds, or toss them out on the bare ground, for them to scratch around in.
