In the 1990s I lived in the inner Melbourne suburb of Armadale. We had both House and Tree Sparrows more or less resident in our front garden.
The interesting thing about them was that the smaller Tree Sparrows were clearly higher in the pecking order than their larger cousins.
Richard
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus [ On Behalf Of Philip Veerman
Sent: Wednesday, 6 February 2019 10:59 AM
To: ; 'Anthea Fleming';
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Melbourne sparrows
For what it is worth, in 1978 I suspect the population size of Tree Sparrows
at La Trobe Uni campus alone, would have been in the vicinity of 200. I
spent a lot of time following flocks to observe individual distance and
flock cohesion, and typical flock size of Tree Sparrows was 20 to 40 (of
course some mixed flocks). At any time there would be several flocks
occupying different sections of the campus and these were fairly stable.
Over a week or two, I trapped about 15 Tree Sparrows and about twice as many
House Sparrows. Sorry amazingly I don't see these numbers in my thesis, nor
a lot of other stuff, (I paid my typist by the page and for now I can't even
remember where I got the funds from). It should be somewhere in my notebook,
which I might still have somewhere.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus [ On Behalf Of
Sent: Wednesday, 6 February, 2019 10:20 AM
To: 'Anthea Fleming';
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Melbourne sparrows
Dear All, I did see a small group of 5 or so Tree sparrows in June last year
in Johnson Street, Collingwood, near the Nicholson St corner.
Cheers
Greg Hunt
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus <> On Behalf Of Anthea
Fleming
Sent: Wednesday, 6 February 2019 10:16 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Melbourne sparrows
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
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