FW: House Sparrows

[Martin Butterfield <>]

My understanding is that House Sparrows have been in decline world-wide.  The reasons are not clear.

Out here in the sticks of Carwoola my impression is that House Sparrows = chooks or horses.  The sparrows dine on the surplus feed.  I haven't studied their distribution in this area rigorously but cannot recall seeing them far from human habitation with one or both of those forms of livestock.

So my suggestion would be that one or more of Eric's neighbours has started running a few chooks which has attracted them into the area.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On 8 November 2016 at 12:06, Julian Robinson <> wrote:

Hi Eric

 

I am forwarding your email (sent to me as COG webmaster) to the COG chatline in case anyone has any thoughts (Eric’s email copied below).  I’m interested in your observation as I haven’t seen a sparrow in my area (Narrabundah) for many years, though they used to compete with the starlings for nest sites in our gutters.  My thought would be that sparrows are widely distributed in the settled parts of the ACT, but in low numbers, and may be increasing again after a couple of decades, and therefore or otherwise may just have decided to move into your patch.  Others might have more informed opinions.

 

There’s plenty of data that might give some insights:

 

http://canberrabirds.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/House-Sparrow.pdf

The data sheets on the website show that sparrows suffered a marked decline in the late 1980’s and have been at low levels for most of the time since then.  There’s an upswing in sightings in the last few years.  They also show that Weston Creek has a slightly above average number of sparrows compared with the sub/urban Canberra average.

 

http://canberrabirds.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/COG_ABR2014-15FinalReportV3.pdf

The most recent Annual Bird Report says:

 

PASSERIDAE: house sparrow

House Sparrow Passer domesticus Common, breeding resident

Introduced species of urban and semi-urban areas.

General: Increase in the number of records from last year (77%)

and over 200% increase over 10 YA. Records from a few more grid

cells (26%) and all weeks. Reporting rate of 11.7%, exactly the

30YA. The total numbers of birds continue to rise: 3671 this year

is up 62% on last year and up 325% of 10YA. Max (down again on

previous years) 58/22 Feb JWNR (SmA1), mean 4.3, median 3.

Only 8 breeding records in 7 grids. Earliest ny/12 Oct Bredbo

GridM30 (TaN1) and last dy/3 Feb LTug (HeS1).

GBS: Increase from last year when many key indicators were down compared to past 30YAs.

Abundance (A=3.5216) is back up but still lower than the 30YA of 5.2139. Average group size up to

9.7 from 7.4 last year, max number of birds up from 60 to 95/3wk May Jerrabomberra (HaL2).

39 breeding records from 8 sites (up from 18 records and 6 sites) commencing with nb/4wk Aug

Nicholls Grid K11 (HaJ7) and concluding with dy/1wk Mar Rivett (BrT2).

 

Cheers

Julian

COGwebmaster

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Helene Anderson [mailto:m("netspeed.com.au","ehanderson");" target="_blank">com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 8 November 2016 11:18 AM
To: m("canberrabirds.org.au","cogwebmaster");" target="_blank">org.au
Subject: House Sparrows

 

I don't know whether this is the correct approach, but after 16 years in our Stirling (Weston Creek) home, I am seeing house sparrows in our small garden and house atrium for almost the first time. The latter rarely attracts birds (it is enclosed although open to the sky) but the sparrows seem to like it. We get a variety of native birds in the garden but until now, sparrows have been conspicuous by their absence. 

I am wondering why the sudden change.

Eric Anderson