I have a white sparrow born and raised by its ordinary (if you can call these lovely little guys ordinary) parents here in my garden in South Lanarkshire. Is it unusual and is it in more danger from our occasionally visiting sparrow hawk and if so is there any thing i can do to protect it.?
Hi Maria, welcome to the community from up in Caithness at the very top of Scotland. What you have is called a Leucistic sparrow, many birds can have this condition, it is because of the colour pigment not being correct. Some birds may some have parts white, wing or tail or splashes of white. You can have a complete white bird and if the eyes are red, that is called an albino, could yours be this? I would not call the sparrow ordinary, they are lovely to see and in many parts quite rare, I love to hear them chatter away in the bushes. As far as the Sparrowhawk visiting, I think anything will be in danger if it is in the way, your sparrow maybe will stand out more being white. If you place your feeders in amongst shrubbery or in front of bushes or tres, the birds like to fly back for cover if there is any disturbance and some like to take food back and eat on the branches. If we feed the birds and the Sparrowhawk finds out, he will know where to find his dinner, it is all part of nature. Have some fresh water out for the birds as well, not only to drink but to bath in as well. Any sort of shallow dish, bowl, basin will do, you will have fun watching them. Enjoy being here, any questions please just ask. Many members have left this site and now that the Osprey's have left to migrate (lots of different threads about these) folks will not post as much, but hopefully there will be someone at hand to help out, we are a friendly lot.