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Authors: Tristan Donovan
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widespread birds, yet wherever it is found it congregates in cities and towns. Half of the UKâs sparrows live in urban areas, even though these account for less than one-seventh of the land in Britain. And although they may struggle in the innermost core of cities, sparrow numbers tend to rise rather than fall with urbanization.
One reason for the house sparrowâs urban success is its lack of fear. Sparrows may be small but they are brave. While many animals shy away from the unusual, sparrows investigate. This lack of fear makes them well adapted to city life. They are more willing to try unfamiliar food and are less frightened by changes to their environment. Itâs a characteristic that has seen house sparrows adapt to modern life in surprising ways.
Take the story of Nigel. Nigel was a New Zealand house sparrow and the most frequent visitor to the Dowse Art Museum in the late 1990s. Several times a day, Nigelâas the employees named himâwould fly over the streets of Lower Hutt, a suburb of the capital city Wellington, to reach the museumâs flat-roofed and white-tiled building.
The automated doors that guarded the entrance would have proved an insurmountable barrier for most birds, but not for Nigel. On reaching the entrance, Nigel would flutter in front of the electronic sensor to trigger the opening of the glass doors. Having fooled the outer doors, he would nip through the entranceand perform the same trick again to cause the second set of doors to part.
After entering the foyer, Nigel would veer right, past the ticket kiosk and artwork, to reach the indoor cafeteria, where he would hop under chairs and pogo along the tabletops eating scraps left behind by clumsy customers. After filling up on breadcrumbs, potato chips, and other morsels, Nigel would exit the cafeteria, going back past the foyer and the sliding doors to reach the outside world, only to return for another raid shortly after.
Nigel was no one-off. Six hundred miles north of Wellington in Auckland, sparrows had cracked the automated door conundrum in a different way. Instead of hovering in front of the doors, they would land on the rectangular sensor and duck their heads to cause the doorway to open so they could reach the Hamilton InterCity bus station eatery.
More than four thousands miles northeast of Auckland, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the local house sparrows figured out another way to fill their beaks with peopleâs leftovers. Each morning the birds would hang precariously from the rooftops of the largest beachfront hotels so they could spy on the tourists eating breakfast on the balconies below and swoop down to grab the remains as soon as the vacationers retreated to their rooms.
After breakfast the sparrows would go and feed elsewhere, but come midday they were back in position for the lunchtime service. Mauiâs other birds would only cotton onto these balcony buffets when they spotted the sparrows flittering to and fro from the hotel facade.
Some urban sparrows have even become night owls. In Bangkok sparrows have been seen late at night, eating moths drawn to the bright lights of the city airport. Likewise in Manhattan, sparrows have been spotted close to midnight feeding on insects near the lights of the Empire State Buildingâs observation deck.
But the house sparrowâs presence in cities is now under threat. Across the world urban sparrow numbers are dropping fast. InUK cities their numbers have fallen 60 percent in the past three decades. Itâs a similar story in Amsterdam, Brussels, Delhi, Hamburg and many eastern US cities. Today the oldest bird on the city block is fading so fast it is now on Britainâs Red List of endangered species, a situation unthinkable just a couple of decades ago. The pattern isnât universalânumbers are stable in the English city of Manchester, for exampleâbut the declines are alarming and the cause unknown.
Will Peach of the
One reason for the house sparrowâs urban success is its lack of fear. Sparrows may be small but they are brave. While many animals shy away from the unusual, sparrows investigate. This lack of fear makes them well adapted to city life. They are more willing to try unfamiliar food and are less frightened by changes to their environment. Itâs a characteristic that has seen house sparrows adapt to modern life in surprising ways.
Take the story of Nigel. Nigel was a New Zealand house sparrow and the most frequent visitor to the Dowse Art Museum in the late 1990s. Several times a day, Nigelâas the employees named himâwould fly over the streets of Lower Hutt, a suburb of the capital city Wellington, to reach the museumâs flat-roofed and white-tiled building.
The automated doors that guarded the entrance would have proved an insurmountable barrier for most birds, but not for Nigel. On reaching the entrance, Nigel would flutter in front of the electronic sensor to trigger the opening of the glass doors. Having fooled the outer doors, he would nip through the entranceand perform the same trick again to cause the second set of doors to part.
After entering the foyer, Nigel would veer right, past the ticket kiosk and artwork, to reach the indoor cafeteria, where he would hop under chairs and pogo along the tabletops eating scraps left behind by clumsy customers. After filling up on breadcrumbs, potato chips, and other morsels, Nigel would exit the cafeteria, going back past the foyer and the sliding doors to reach the outside world, only to return for another raid shortly after.
Nigel was no one-off. Six hundred miles north of Wellington in Auckland, sparrows had cracked the automated door conundrum in a different way. Instead of hovering in front of the doors, they would land on the rectangular sensor and duck their heads to cause the doorway to open so they could reach the Hamilton InterCity bus station eatery.
More than four thousands miles northeast of Auckland, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the local house sparrows figured out another way to fill their beaks with peopleâs leftovers. Each morning the birds would hang precariously from the rooftops of the largest beachfront hotels so they could spy on the tourists eating breakfast on the balconies below and swoop down to grab the remains as soon as the vacationers retreated to their rooms.
After breakfast the sparrows would go and feed elsewhere, but come midday they were back in position for the lunchtime service. Mauiâs other birds would only cotton onto these balcony buffets when they spotted the sparrows flittering to and fro from the hotel facade.
Some urban sparrows have even become night owls. In Bangkok sparrows have been seen late at night, eating moths drawn to the bright lights of the city airport. Likewise in Manhattan, sparrows have been spotted close to midnight feeding on insects near the lights of the Empire State Buildingâs observation deck.
But the house sparrowâs presence in cities is now under threat. Across the world urban sparrow numbers are dropping fast. InUK cities their numbers have fallen 60 percent in the past three decades. Itâs a similar story in Amsterdam, Brussels, Delhi, Hamburg and many eastern US cities. Today the oldest bird on the city block is fading so fast it is now on Britainâs Red List of endangered species, a situation unthinkable just a couple of decades ago. The pattern isnât universalânumbers are stable in the English city of Manchester, for exampleâbut the declines are alarming and the cause unknown.
Will Peach of the
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