Noisy and gregarious, these cheerful exploiters of man's rubbish and wastefulness, have managed to colonise most of the world. The ultimate avian opportunist perhaps. Monitoring suggests a severe decline in the UK house sparrow population, recently estimated as dropping by 71 per cent between 1977 and 2008 with substantial declines in both rural and urban populations. Whilst the decline in England continues, Breeding Bird Survey data indicate recent population increases in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Key ID Features:
A small, stocky, finch like bird which associates communally with human residences.
Both sexes have a stout triangular bill, darker in the male.
Females are generally dull brown with varying amounts of dark streaking on the back.
Summer males share the dark streaking but have distinct grey cap and cheeks with a black bib and upper chest.
Their constant chirrup is familiar wherever they are found in numbers.
Overview
Scientific name: Passer domesticus.
Family: Sparrows (Passeridae)
Where to see them:
Found from the centre of cities to the farmland of the countryside, it feeds and breeds near to people. Vanishing from the centre of many cities, but not uncommon in most towns and villages. It is absent from parts of the Scottish Highlands and is thinly distributed in most upland areas.
Seen in UK:
All year-round.
What they eat
Seeds and scraps.
Text (c) RSPB, used with permission
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Location: Edington, Wiltshire
Photographer: Tim Tapley
