House Sparrows & Crested Pigeons share nesting site

[Terry Munro <>]

I remember years ago when there were lots of sparrows around Canberra their favourite tree for nesting was pencil pines

Terry Munro

On Sat, 3 Oct 2020 at 6:58 PM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:

Your observation of the style of the nest is pretty standard for House Sparrows. Nesting in buildings is probably more common than in shrubs. There shouldn’t be any problems between these 2.

 

From: John Layton [
Sent: Saturday, 3 October, 2020 5:35 PM
To: Canberra birds
Subject: [Canberrabirds] House Sparrows & Crested Pigeons share nesting site

 

During the past week I’ve noticed a pair of House Sparrows carrying nesting materials to a large evergreen shrub in a neighbour’s yard and, as I’ve never found a House Sparrow’s nest in anything other than a roof cavity etc, I investigated and located the nest, a haphazard bowl-shaped affair that appeared to have been thrown together by amateurs rather than constructed by artisans. HANZAB mentions other shapes, along with the fact they are known to nest in shrubs and small trees.

 

Materials included grass, shredded plastic from a shopping bag, garden twine, plastic drinking straws, paper, insulated wire about 5mm in diameter and bark from melaleucas. However, due to the height of the nest and thickness of the shrub, I couldn’t see if it contained anything.

 

Then, while poking and prying, I noticed a Crested Pigeon sitting on its nest in the upper branches about 1.5 metres from the sparrows. I wish both parties the best of birdish luck as the fence top is a regular pathway for “Panzer Paws,” a nimrod tabby known to his owners as Twinkie.

 

 

John Layton

Holt.

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