The House Sparrow Or Roof Sparrow
Although their numbers have declined considerably, the house sparrow remains part of the urban landscape in much of the world. We’ll tell you details about this friendly and vivacious little animal that, when it chooses not to fly, moves around by jumping on the ground and other surfaces.
The house sparrow, a true citizen of the world
Also known as the roof sparrow, the Passer domesticus is a passerine bird of the family Passeridae, originally from Eurasia and North Africa. Soon, man introduced this bird to several continents, except Antarctica. These days, they are found in the temperate and urban zones of planet Earth.
Small but robust, the house sparrow has a life expectancy of 7 years, which can be extended to 13 if it lives in captivity. Among its main physical characteristics, we can highlight:
- Weight: 30 grams.
- Height: between 14 and 16 centimeters.
- Short legs with a pinkish color.
- Strong, thick and conical beak.
Differences between the male and female house sparrow
In males, the plumage is gray on the undersides and a little darker on the cap. In addition, it has black spots on the chest and throat. And both the supra-tails like the chryssus and the retrictions are brown. The wings, in turn, are chocolate colored with a white band and some black feathers.
The two curved bands running from the top of each eye to the neck are also chocolate colored. And, between the beak and its eyes, it has a black band, like a mask.
The females, which have a smaller size, have a gray coloration on the lower parts and chest, and a brown tone on the wings, rectrices and cap. In addition, they have a lighter superciliary band.
A bird used to living with humans
Curious and intelligent are good adjectives to describe the sparrow. Possessed of sedentary and gregarious habits, it is common to find him on the streets, in parks and in gardens, where he seems not to fear the human presence. It can also be found in vegetable gardens and farms.
It is common to see him in these places moving quickly through small jumps. That’s because he usually looks for food on the ground, taking advantage of the waste that human beings produce. But his food is based on seeds and also on some insects that he hunts, mainly to give to his young.
Also, you can watch them mating. And also taking its characteristic “dust baths” to remove parasites from the body.
Some data on house sparrow reproduction
In each breeding season, the house sparrow finds a unique partner. In spring, it makes a nest with feathers, dry leaves, and even with scraps of paper, whether from the cracks of buildings, roof tiles or trunks.
The female usually lays between 4 to 5 eggs per laying period – she can have up to 4 eggs each spring – which are incubated for about 10 days, either by the female or by the male.
Both the daddy and the mommy sparrow are also in charge of feeding the puppies which, after a few weeks, are already full of feathers.
The house sparrow is disappearing from cities
In spite of all this, the everyday postcard of cities, the house sparrow, which used to live in droves with humans, are no longer so common or so massive. It is estimated that 63% of these birds disappeared from Europe between 1980 and 2013.
The causes of this decrease in the sparrow population are in vogue. Among them, we can mention:
- Climate changes
- Pesticides
- electromagnetism
- carbon dioxide emissions
- Lack of spaces to shelter and to build their nests
- Competition with new invasive species
- Increase in predators (especially cats that live on the streets)
It is also known that these friendly creatures are often a great biological indicator of health in cities. Therefore, the less we see these birds, for sure, the greater the contamination that exists in that place. So, for the sake of our planet and for the sake of our humanity, we need to do everything in our hands so that these friendly and cosmopolitan little brown birds return to populate our large urban centers.
