I agree that house sparrows themselves are not at fault -- we humans brought them to this country for our own purposes. However, I believe that we need to take responsibility to correct this situation. House sparrows are a disaster for native birds, and every house sparrow we have represents many native birds whose nests they have overtaken and whose young they have killed. To do our part, we routinely remove house sparrow eggs from our nest boxes.
As a non-native species, house sparrows are not legally protected as are native birds. We'd never interfere with native bird nests! And, of course, if we lived in the UK, these would be native birds, and we'd not interfere with them in that location. It's not about liking or not liking house sparrows (actually a weaver finch).
I'm delighted to know that finally this practice can serve an even greater purpose. Cornell Lab of Ornithology's researchers are studying the variations among house sparrow eggs to research various ecological questions without disturbing native birds.
As they indicate, "eggshell coloration and pattern may vary with available calcium, sunlight patterns, or habitat quality, and are expected to differ seasonally and geographically as well."
I submitted (a higher resolution version of) this photo of the eggs from a recent house sparrow clutch for their use. It is surprising to see so much variation in color and patterns.
Although I'm not happy removing any bird's eggs, I'm confident that this is the ethical course of action that will help our native birds and promote a healthy ecosystem.
2 comments:
We have a blue bird who started a nest in one of our nesting boxes only to be ran off by a sparrow. We tried and tried to chase the sparrow away but the sparrow won out and the blue birds left the nest. We hurriedly put up another nesting box and sure enough the blue birds built a new nest. I think she may have laid her eggs but I don't know for sure. The pair keep a constant vigil at their new nest. The sparrow is sitting on eggs. I just felt bad to take the eggs. But maybe I should especially after the way she ran off the blue birds. BTW I love reading your blog. It has given me so much inspiration and I'm striving to create a wildlife friendly yard. I was so excited about the bluebirds.
You're so lucky to have bluebirds! I doubt we'll ever have any because we don't have the kind of meadow-like place they like.
I'm glad you like the blog. I enjoy sharing some of the neat things that happen in our yard.
Janet
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