Bird feeders help save House Sparrows
The endangered status of the bird comes as a shock to many people who see sparrows regularly at their bird tables. But House Sparrow populations have been in severe decline for many years. You can help sparrows survive by putting out more bird feeders, food and nesting boxes.
The popular sparrow may be adaptable to various climatic conditions, but its presence in any country is extremely dependent on an adequate food supply always being available. Over the last century that food supply has dropped and the sparrow is now on an endangered red list.
A species can become red listed when its breeding population declines by more than 50% in the previous 25 years. House Sparrow numbers in the UK have fallen by 62% over this time frame and similar declines are occurring around the world. Although experts lack a complete understanding for the decline, the drop in numbers is often linked to the effects of industrialisation. This in turn reduces the bird’s access to food and adequate nesting spaces.
The rise of the car has had detrimental effects on the sparrow in particular. For one, emissions from cars burning unleaded petrol contain methyl tertiary butyl ether which is responsible for vast reductions in many insect species. These insects are a primary source of food for small birds and essential to the survival of sparrow chicks.
Secondly, before cars were popularly used, horses were the mainstay of transport and their abundance meant the birds had easy access to the cereal used to feed horses and none of the problems related to pollution. More recently the trend of ‘garden grabbing’, where front gardens are concreted for car parking spaces is also an issue, particularly in urban areas.
And that’s not all. Today’s agricultural practices with intensive use of pesticides and the elimination of hedgerows reduces food and shelter. Modern building practices also reduce the number of accessible nesting sites as crevices are either non-existent or sealed. Even microwaves from mobile phone masts has been blamed as a contributing factor.
A rather worrying repercussion of these changes made by modern life to the bird’s access to food and nesting sites is the potential for what is known as the Allee Effect. This is when species population falls below a critical level, after which the reproduction and survival rates decrease to the point where the species loses the will to breed.
The concern for such a drop in sparrow numbers has led to campaigns to help conserve the House Sparrow, including World Sparrow Day, which recently passed on March 20th.
The Burhani Foundation of India were so determined to help raise sparrow numbers around this date that they distributed 52,000 bird feeders free to individuals, schools and institutions as an effort to boost house sparrow population across the country.
The foundation’s efforts encourage people all over the world to use bird feeders to help create a consistently available food supply for House Sparrows. Without such a food supply their numbers could continue to drop.
If you want to help increase house sparrow numbers, visit the RSPB website to find out more and make sure your bird feeders are well stocked all year round.
