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Field
Guide IDs: BREEDING:
Cultivated lands,
woodland and edge, around human habitation. 2,
often 3 broods. DISPLAYS:
Courting male hops
around female, back flattened, head up, tail down,
wings extended, and tips of primaries nearly
touching the ground. NEST:
In artificial or
natural cavity; also rarely ball-shaped with
entrance on side, placed in fork or tree branch; of
grass, forbs, lined with feathers, hair. Male or
female may select site. EGGS:
White, greenish, or
bluish, marked with gray or brown. 0.9" (23
mm). DIET:
Includes spiders;
grass and forb seeds, blossoms. Young fed mostly
insects. CONSERVATION:
Winter resident.
Introduced and established between 1850 and 1867.
Aggressively appropriates nests, esp of bluebirds
and swallows, often destroying eggs and
nestlings. NOTES:
Most abundant
species in U.S. in early 1900s except in densely
forested, alpine and desert regions. Decreased with
advent of automobile and decline of horse, esp in e
urban areas; presumably because of disappearance of
grain fed to horses and spread in their manure.
Still abundant in agricultural areas. Competition
for nest sites begins in autumn for the following
spring. Mostly female broods young. Large winter
roosts in or near human dwellings or in dense
evergreen trees. Has differentiated geographically
since introduction to N.A.; races now vary in color
and body size in different parts of N.A.
range. Common resident
around artificial structures throughout campus.
This species nests in artificial crevices and
cavities in buildings and other structures, and
occasionally in bluebird nest boxes. Although it
often forages on seeds in weedy and brushy
habitats, the House Sparrow most frequently feeds
on human leftovers. ESSAYS: Avian
Invaders;
Natural
Selection;
Wing
Shapes and Flight;
Bathing
and Dusting;
Species
and Speciation;
Communal
Roosting REFERENCES:
Hegner and
Wingfield, 1986, 1987; Johnston and Selander, 1964;
Murphy, 1978; Robbins, 1973. |
