House Sparrow A Bird That Is Always Around

It was Livingsword from the Life On The Blade blog that recently asked me, 'What is your favorite bird?' I thought I would talk about this one. In reality, I like all the birds. Last year I started my birdwatching adventures, and you can obviously guess that I have many bird posts included in this blog, including my blog avatar, a juvenile Barn swallow. I had many thoughts about changing my avatar, but I really like that baby barn swallow photo. It was a blessing to be at the right place at the right time—the soccer field LOL.

Birdwatching, or birding, is real fun! I say we, my husband and I, started our birding adventure in the spring. We hiked and decided to focus more on birds and study them in more detail. To our surprise, we could not believe how many species we were able to capture on the camera. I hate to tell you, but before we started birding, all the birds looked the same to us—obviously excluding chickens. To my surprise, I also discovered that taking photos of the juvenile birds was the easiest thing to do. You look at them, and they look at you back, and you get closer and closer, click and click, and keep moving in until they don't fit into your viewfinder anymore.

Well, let's go back to my favorite bird. As I said, it is hard to say; however, all my life I enjoyed the presence of the House sparrow [Passer domesticus]. The House sparrows are always around. I had the privilege to enjoy them when growing up in Europe and continue to enjoy them here in Canada. House sparrows always look happy to me, and this is probably why I like them so much. I know you may have heard stories of them attacking people or invading private spaces, but for me, this was never an issue, and this is probably because I don't have a garden to worry about. The photo shown here is of a female House sparrow. I have had many birds enjoy food from my birdfeeder since last fall, and the House sparrows were one of them, not to mention they worked well with our local Mourning Doves during the feeding time. As the House sparrows pecked on the food in the bird feeder, all the mess would then be cleaned up by the Mourning Doves, as they would peck what was on the ground. It was very interesting to watch. Another place where I see them all the time is our local supermarket parking lot and at every zoo I have ever visited—obviously these are places with plenty of food.

Unfortunately, I read something interesting when I was looking for information on House sparrows on the Internet. The population of House sparrows in Europe is declining, mainly due to the use of pesticides in gardens. This is another sad story, and it is unusual to hear about such a popular bird.

~ Anna