House Sparrow Diet
The "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds" says that all of the millions of house sparrows present in the United States today are direct descendants of a handful of birds released in New York City in 1850. As their name indicates, the house sparrow is a bird that easily lives alongside people. However, in America the bird can cause trouble for native species because of its diet.
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Identification
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Female house sparrow Also called English sparrows, house sparrows are typically 6.25 inches long and have a wingspan of 9 inches. The average bird weighs less than 1 ounce and possesses a thick beak which it uses to crack open seeds. The males have a red-brown back and head with what looks like a black bib in the front on their chests. The females are a drab set of grays and browns, with a white stripe near the eye.
Rural Diet
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The house sparrow consumes a diet consisting of grains and seeds when in a rural setting. The bird can do damage to crops by eating such field staples as corn, wheat, oats and sorghum. The adult birds will capture insects such as caterpillars during the warmer months and eat the bugs themselves or feed them to the young sparrows. However, its feeding on grains offsets any good the birds do by devouring harmful insect larvae. House sparrows will also eat the seeds of ragweed, buckwheat, crabgrass and other plants.
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Urban Diet
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In an urban venue, the house sparrow can thrive by eating whatever food people toss away. The bird will commonly peck through garbage or hunt for crumbs in parks and along the street. The house sparrow can build a nest in nearly any sort of habitat, so it can live in a city and not have to travel far for food. The food discarded at fast-food establishments is enough to support populations of this bird.
Behavior
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Avian Web.com suggests there could be as many as 400 million house sparrows in the United States. The success of the bird comes from it having the ability to fill a niche in the ecosystem that few birds could, living in close proximity to people and taking advantage of the food opportunities humans create. The bird is not an aggressive defender of its own territory in regards to others of its kind, but it will drive away other types of birds, even from the other species' own nests.
Considerations
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House sparrows will hop around on the ground searching for seeds or bugs. Sometimes the birds will follow closely behind someone mowing grass, hoping to pounce on any insects the activity disturbs. House sparrows will also eat flowers, with yellow flowers seemingly more appetizing to them than most other types. The house sparrow is a common sight at bird feeders in summer and winter. The birds will scare less aggressive species from the feeders and gorge themselves until full.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit sparrow image by Henryk Olszewski from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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I have a robin's nest on my balcony. the mother robin has been sitting atop the nest for weeks. now she has lost interest even though the eggs haven' hatched. why is she not as devoted as she was?
