Sparrow, one of the earliest birds you can remember from your childhood. The association between humans and the sparrow dates to several centuries.
House sparrows are everywhere humans are. Despite being wild birds, house sparrows occur almost everywhere where people live, and are almost never found where people are absent.
For centuries, house sparrows have peacefully coexisted with us in our homes and gardens, but in the last two decades, their population is on the decline in almost every country.
The reasons attributed are: rapidly changing cities are no longer a suitable habitat for the house sparrow, as the new and modern designs of infrastructure does not give any room for the sparrow to nest; pollution caused by matchbox styled residential and commercial towers, cell phone towers and WiFi zones in our communities have huge impact on survival of sparrows, the house sparrows are losing its natural grasslands as the green spaces in our cities and towns are given way to more concrete constructions.
With rising temperatures and a hot summer looming large, lack of water is the one thing due to which sparrows suffer a lot during summer. Keeping the food and water in open spaces will help them to survive and stay connected with you.
Help the sparrows to return by arranging food grains and water for sparrows in your balcony, roof top and in parks.
I totaly agree with you @VijayBhasker ,the changes in the environtent,destruction and reconstruction of old building comes to the destruction of their habitat.
Less ans less we noticed them on the streets of our cities and towns.,only in the countryside they can live ,where are a lot of old buildings.
This little birds always cheered us with their chirping in the morning.
Now their place is occupiedby pigeo s ,crows,jackdaws.
Cutting down trees in the urban area also affect the habitat of birds!
Thank you do much ,that you write about this important question @VijayBhasker
Hi @VijayBhasker very good post and very good and positive information share by you very well done and we are very much cape bale to help others so way not help others as a habit . Thanks for writing this post and pictures are also very lovely come on keep it up my dear friend we are with you …
Thank you @VijayBhasker for such an insightful post about sparrows. We all need to be conscious about our environment and it’s habitats the little that we do makes a big difference.
@VijayBhasker thanks for sharing. This is a wake up call for all especially local guides to save all these endangered species from extinction by protecting our environment.
@Kousalya Thanks, true the modern lifestyle changes people adopting are one major impact in reduction of sparrows. Beyond urbanization and reduction of green cover.
@VijayBhasker May be our future generation kids might read about sparrows only on books. Everyone has to take initiative by protecting the environment so that our future generation will have good environment.
@helga19 From past 3 years I studied their existence and survival methods by closely monitoring them every alternative day. The best part of attracting sparrows is feeding them at least once or twice in a week. They never leave the place if they find it secure and sustainable, they will become more close to you than the pet dog or cat even if you feed them once a week. They learnt the art of survival by searching for food from our neighborhood and return to our place for sustaining. Sparrow have become my alarm from past 4 years and I love to wake up with their chirps.
Yes the new modern way of construction is not supporting for nesting, but by placing artificial nesting homes in balconies and backyards allow them to be secure to nest. As mentioned pigeons, crows etc occupying their place, yes these birds are stronger and dominant but I dont see any harm caused by these birds to sparrows than humans and society as a whole. I can see pigeons and sparrows in my balcony living in harmony and enjoy their share equally.
Yes reduced green cover in our communities are bigger impact on sparrow extinction. Having few plants in balconies and in open spaces will attract sparrows, as they feel safe to access the place frequently in search of food and water.
@JMD9 Good to hear your support and encouragement to move forward in protecting sparrows. Its always better to protect them when they exists rather than working hard when they are getting completely extinct, what do you say?
@chinyama Good to see your supportive response for my post, you rightly mentioned we humans, have robbed them of their food and nesting places and pushing them to the edge of extinction. As the green spaces in our cities give way to more concrete constructions in the name of urbanization and development.We need to be more responsible to environment and to the bio diversity to protect our future generations to live a happy and healthy lives.
@Onukakalu Happy to see your support and its true the Local Guides Team should work towards rising awareness among citizens to take action and protect the sparrows from getting extinct.
@Stuart_C Yes, they are part of community for ages and will remain our best neighbors for years to come if we start protecting them and by giving little space to them to live. True, people always go with looks and run behind capturing the exotic birds which are far from our places where we live but completely ignore the little sparrows that are part of our community from ages and helping us to wake up early in the morning with their chirps.
Dear @VijayBhasker , I completely agree with ur views. I really appreciate u for posting this message and encouraging people to keep water and food grains for these innocent and beautiful Creatures. During summer it really becomes tough for them to survive. Keep up ur good work. All the best.
Sharing some of my experiences, that you may like:
@Kousalya I live in Hyderabad, and I could see over thousands of sparrows from past 4 years in my community and their count is getting increased with more awareness among people by providing water and little grains of millet’s that are inexpensive just ₹50 per kg that can feed over 50 sparrows for complete week. We dont need to tell our kids about sparrows in books, we need to educate them about their importance in our eco system and encourage them to serve food and water during summer days and when ever possible, this practice will help them to understand the nature to its core.
