I agree most likely movement to a roost site. They will often gather on their
way to roosts which tends to be in deciduous trees.
In the mid-afternoon on a particularly dreary day in July last year I saw a
flock of 140 sparrows in what appeared to be a pre-roost gathering in Boorowa.
Ryu
--- Michael Lenz <> wrote:
>
>
> These observations in the evening reflect movement to a night roost site.
> Usually sparrows come together from a wider area, hence at a given site
> numbers may be relatively low, but a roost draws in birds from further afield.
>
> Michael Lenz
>
>
> On 21 February 2018 at 11:06, John Harris <>
> wrote:
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> An interesting observation given that the general consensus is that House
> Sparrow numbers are decreasing in Australia and indeed globally. Of course
> one flock is not statistically significant but
> interesting anyway. Around here (Gungahlin) I record fewer sparrows over
> the past few years than I did 10 years ago.
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> From: John Layton <>
> Date: Wednesday, 21 February 2018 at 10:59 am
> To: chatline < org.au>
> Subject: [canberrabirds] Large flock of House Sparrows
>
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> At 19:00 Hours yesterday I noticed several groups of small birds flying past
> the window. Went outside and saw the outer foliage of a spreading
> apricot tree was crowded with House Sparrows, both males and females,
> although some of the latter were probably immatures. Arrestingly, the warm
> reddish rays of the westering sun imparted a ruddy patina to their dowdy
> plumage.
>
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> Groups of between 8 to twelve birds kept arriving from the south, most landed
> on the apricot while some continued north. After
> a few minutes, groups began leaving the apricot and flying back in the
> direction they had come. Then, just thirty metres away, they paused for a few
> seconds in a bushy birch before flying on out of sight. This movement
> continued for maybe 5 minutes until no
> sparrows remained in the area.
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> After a good objective think I believe the total number I witnessed easily
> exceeded 100 perhaps 150. I suppose all this was
> some kind of post-breeding movement? Regardless, it’s the largest flock of
> House Sparrows I’ve seen in Australia.
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> John Layton
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> Holt.
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> Message protected by MailGuard: e-mail anti-virus, anti-spam and content
> filtering.
> http://www.mailguard.com.au/mg
>
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> Report this message as spam
>
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