The Humble Sparrow, a bird that is now on the red list. I don't recall any threads our photo's of these delicate little birds.
I took a few photo's of these often taken for granted beautiful little birds, I have a flock of about a dozen that come every day.
Thought I would share the experience of my flock with you all.
Male House Sparrows are easily recognised by their grey crowns and variably-sized black bibs but females might be more difficult. However, nearly all the other dull brown birds with thick, conical bills have streaked rather than plain underparts.
Regards Buzzard
Nature Is Amazing - Let Us Keep It That Way
Thank you Buzzard for these wonderful shots.
You might gather from my nick name that they are my favourite birds. To me they are the clowns of the bird world more so than starlings I think. I have a colony of over 30 who spend their days in my garden. I think most of them are last summer's fledglings and I have watched them develop from fat fluff balls to teenagers with attitude. They play in my conifer hedge where they have a special "sparrows corner" with a trellis fence and their own special feeder. They are so comical when they sit inside the trellis squares, one bird in each square, almost like faces peering out of rows and columns of windows. A group of them act as look outs, and sit on the top of the hedge with necks outstretched, heads turning at amazing angles to get full view of all the area, whilst the others feed and play. They have recently taken over an ornamental privet tree in addition to the hedge. It has long flexible branches, and when they land, the branches bend a long way down, which causes chaos sometimes!
They may be little brown birds, but they have attitude and can be little thugs if they have a mind to be. I could (and sometimes do) sit and watch them for hours.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Thank you Buzzard, lovely clear photographs. We don't see too many sparrows in the garden but there are plenty, alongside tree sparrows, in the hedgerows.
Hi Buzzard
Well you are certainly getting to grips with that new camera, beautiful photos of your sparrows. They are lovely birds and as Sparrow says entertaining in themselves. I have quite a few too that seem to love our cottoneaster to the point that they have their own feeder.
Regards
Kerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kezmo6310/
Love your pictures of your Sparrows, Buzzard. Got their cute expressions to a tee with your new camera.
Little fluff balls that they are in the cold weather.
They are just the most endearing birds ever. Like you say Kezmo, they sit on the top most branches of 'their' own bush and wait for us to feed them
I know that they are familar with me, and I say hello each time I pass by the bush in my front garden.
Now they all pop out in unison and check me out.
Cute things that they are.
Kathy and Dave
Brilliant photos Buzzard. How I would love to attract these little birds but so far I have seen only one and only on that one occasion. Luckily I managed to get a decent photo of it or by now I would have convinced myself that I had dreamed it!
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Squirrel ... what a shame you don't get any. They do like thick cover, such as leylandii or privet hedges, and also large cotoneasters, ivy and other evergreens. They prefer to stay half hidden and like a feeder that is hanging immediately next to or in their hideaway, preferably one they can sit in. They seem to prefer ordinary seed rather than sunflowers and I can't get mine to eat fat balls etc so I have to provide suet treats for them. They also like peanuts and will cling to peanut feeders. Mine feel safe in our garden after being here since last spring, so they do feed from the ground and use some of my other more open feeders. They seem to live in colonies of about 30, and are very sociable so if you get one you tend to get the whole extended family, and they don't tend to travel more than a few hundred yards from where they hatched. Maybe it is just the area you live in that hasn't got any. It is a shame. I could send you some, but not many!!!
Hi Sparrow, many thanks for that information. We do have thick cover around two sides of our back garden and there are a variety of conifers and leylandii in the garden next door so I suspect you are right in thinking that there aren't many in the area. The one did come "prospecting" and saw that food was available so had there been more I would have expected to see them during the snow in December but there was no sign of any.
Great pics Buzzard! I'm also lucky to have a fairly healthy population here!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
My photos on Flickr
Thankyou Buzzard, that camera was well worth the money!
I don't know why they are on the red list as here in the West Midlands they are in abundance. probably our no1 most popular garden visitor. They also thrive in the hedge planting in Supermarket / retail car parks. Is it in certain areas that they are in decline or habitats such as the countryside. Do the RSPB know why they are in decline / to deserve a place on the red list?
Lovely photos. I get around 20 in my garden every day, I think they nest in the barns of the farm opposite me.