I have some other ideas, though less from Australia. This
suggests that sparrows survive very well with high density humanity. I think
this is largely correlated with the extent of messiness of the human activity. They
don’t go at all well without presence of people. I visited China in 2009 and
Philippines in 2014, 2015 & 2018 (combined with Singapore in 2014, these
being the only times I have been out of Australia). I have no idea of changes
over time, I only comment on the times I was there (leaving out Singapore
because I don’t remember). There the House Sparrow does not occur but the Tree
Sparrow is surely the most common urban bird and is much more common than the
House Sparrow is here. There aren’t many other birds to compete with sparrows,
the local bulbul and perhaps some mynas. That the Tree Sparrow is so common
means it behaves in some ways differently from how it does here, I perceived
them as more vocal and with a bigger vocal repertoire. I wish I could describe
that better and I wish I had that opportunity 42 years ago. There are vast
numbers of people and cars in the cities there, much more than here. So I don’t
see how unleaded petrol or other direct human activities is an issue although
decline in urban horses probably is, though that is surely an old issue. Predation
is surely an issue, though probably not so much by birds. There are various
species of magpies and shrikes there that are sort of like small currawongs and
butcherbirds, but doesn’t appear to be enough of them to impact greatly on
sparrows. Predation by cats and people is likely to be much greater. There are
enormous numbers of cats and dogs in the cities and parks, mostly untended, and
I watched cats hunting sparrows. I also saw street stalls of people selling “barbequed
sparrows” on sticks, ready to eat, in China. Probably these were mostly
sparrows but likely included other small birds, (as they were well roasted my
ability to identify them was limited). Likely also happens in Philippines too,
I did see boys with sling shots pursuing birds.
Philip
From: Birding-Aus [
On Behalf Of Stephen Ambrose
Sent: Wednesday, 6 February, 2019 12:41 PM
To: 'birding-aus'
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Melbourne sparrows
Hi All,
I suspect the House Sparrow
hit the perfect storm in Sydney in the very
early 1990s.
1.
Increased abundance and presence of predators, especially the Pied
Currawong, but also cats and, in the city centre, Peregrine Falcons. I
remember House Sparrows (adults and chicks) in nests in my house roof gutters (in Gladesville, about 10 NW of the Sydney
CBD) being easy pickings for local Pied Currawongs in the early 1990s. In
fact, a pair of Pied Currawongs nesting in
a eucalypt about 200 m up the street from my home regularly ambushed sparrow nestlings and
tending adult birds at nests
and fed them to their own chicks. The
last Blackbird I saw in the Sydney CBD landed briefly on the window ledge of
the then RAOU Office in Bathurst Street in 1993, I say briefly because within
seconds it was taken by a Peregrine Falcon which swooped from above. I just
happened to look up at the window at the right time to see it all happen.
So, I’m sure that Peregrines also took city sparrows regularly, too.
2.
Increased competition for food scraps and
competitive exclusion by Indian Mynas and possibly the Australian White Ibis,
but I do recall that sparrows really did decline in abundance before ibises became extremely abundant in Sydney.
Possibly also excluded from areas by the build-up
in abundance of Noisy Miners?
3.
Extensive use of herbicides,
especially Roundup, in peoples’ gardens from the late 1980s onwards. Possibly reducing food supply (weed seeds), but also
from secondary poisoning by
ingesting contaminated seeds. The
reason I say this is that Red-browed Firetails used to be relatively abundant
in my local urban park until the council started spraying herbicides, then they
disappeared. It took me three years to convince the council to stop spraying
weeds and exotic grasses, and within 12 months, the Red-browed Firetails began
to occur there again, though in lower numbers.
4.
Increased urban density in
inner Sydney metro areas –
fewer and smaller residential gardens and more monstrous-sized high-rise
apartment blocks.
5.
Disease epidemics? The
House Sparrow is a colonial bird, so you might expect infections to spread
quickly.
As I said earlier, all
these factors combined probably
created the perfect storm.
Cheers,
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW
-----Original
Message-----
From: Birding-Aus <> On Behalf Of
David Clark
Sent: 6 February 2019 11:02 AM
To: birding-aus <>
Subject: Melbourne sparrows
They were pretty common
when we first moved to Box Hill 30 odd years ago but had completely disappeared
by the turn of the century (probably around the time the Noisy Miners turned
up).
They are in plague
proportions on our home on the Bellarine Peninsula and I’ll have to find a way
to stop them eating the chook food.
Cheers
David
Sent from my iPad
> On 6 Feb 2019, at
10:15 am, Anthea Fleming <m("labyrinth.net.au","flambeau");">> wrote:
>
> In Melbourne, there
are plenty of House Sparrows in the CBD and around shopping centres. Lots of
food there. But they have largely disappeared from parks and house
gardens.
> Anthea Fleming
>
>> On 6/02/2019 9:37
AM, Michael Hunter wrote:
>> Am briefly in
downtown Melbourne, outside the Town Hall, and amazed at the number of House
Sparrows.
>>
>> None in Sydney or
Brisbane .
>>
>> What has Melbourne
got that they don't ?
>>
>>
Cheers. Michael
