I replaced my corrugated sheet asbestos roof with a new Colorbond one 10 years ago, and I haven’t seen House Sparrows at my O’Connor home since- and I keep
laying hens. Similarly for Starlings, they were much more common at my place before about 2000 when I had a lawn, and they did compete with Sparrows for nesting sites in the gutters. Now just the odd Starling flyover, as Philip V. says. However, as you’d
expect, House Sparrows are always present at Dickson shops and Dame Pattie Menzies House where I work.
Ian Baird
From: Philip Veerman [
Sent: Tuesday, 8 November 2016 1:15 PM
To: 'canberrabirds chatline'
Cc:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] FW: House Sparrows
Here - sort of as usual - is the extract from The GBS Report. Once again shows the need for this work to be updated. Around my place the
House Sparrow
is reasonably stable over time. Probably a slight decline. I was going to write pretty much the same in general comment as what Martin just sent.
In contrast to the Starling which in the 1980s was rarely absent from my lawn area for more than a few minutes. It has now been several years since I last observed
a Starling perched or walking on my property (just the occasional fly over).
House Sparrow Passer domesticus
This is a species well known for their strong dependence on human habitation (Summers-Smith 1963). This species is more common in the urban (town centres, major shopping centres) than suburban environment. For the first
14 years it was the second most common species but it has since declined. The monthly pattern is quite regular but of small amplitude. From a November low, rises to the March peak. This is associated with breeding. Apparent numbers decline as birds are nesting,
due to birds being out of sight and the fact that much nesting occurs around town centres and buildings away from garden areas. The March peak represents the impact of flocks of newly independent juveniles. Winter numbers are fairly uniform. The fact that
July abundance is higher than that of June (eleven months later), is most likely due to the steady population decline of the species. The abundance has declined smoothly and markedly, particularly from Years 6 to 21. This is clearly a valid result as this
is a widespread species. However, it could be a long-term undulation as the population was increasing from Years 1 to 6. Breeding records were highest in the mid 1980s and have declined since. Nest building and other activities at nest commence in mid-September
but most breeding activity is from October to January. There is a large overlap with many nest activities commencing late, these are rarely followed by observations of dependent young. There are few dependent young after late February.
Graphs on page: 104, Rank: 11, Breeding Rank: 9, Breeding graph on page: 107, A = 7.07589, F = 96.11%, W = 52.0, R = 73.676%, G = 9.60.
Philip
From: Julian Robinson
Sent: Tuesday, 8 November, 2016 12:06 PM To: canberrabirds chatline
Subject: [canberrabirds] FW: House Sparrows
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 Sent: Tuesday, 8 November 2016 11:18 AM
To:
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
