Where have the sparrows gone?

[Mealworm]

Answer - Egypt (Luxor to be precise)

I've noticed a big decline in the sparrow over the years. When I was a kid they seemed to be everywhere. I've not seen one in my gardem. My husband's mum had a large garden and apparently it was full of these little birds but not any more.

I've recently been to Egypt for a holiday and was sitting in the blazing sunshine at 6 am eating breakfast on the terrace garden in our hotel. The garden was surronded with flowering bourganvillia and the noise from these birds was incredible. There were so many nesting pairs and it was a delight to watch them. These little opportunitsts have learnt that when a guest vacates their table there is food on the go and they would desend on it on mass. Not exactly a good idea on the hygeine front but at least the waiters didn't have to brush the tables before the next guest arrived.

How can we encourage these birds back to our gardens? Any ideas Storey Book and others? Thanks for the audio link Storey BOok. I think we do have a ring ouzle in the midlands.....

All the best

[storye_book]

i'm beginning to suspect that part of the answer is hidden in your question: you mention lots of bourganvillia for sparrows to hide out (and nest?) in, plus regular free food. we have only two sparrow colonies in our village and the next village, and in both cases the sparrows have a whacking great mixed hedge (including evergreens, especially ivy) plus regular birdfeeding. many garden hedges have been rooted out in the uk in the past half-century; also of course the field hedgerows, and during the same period sparrow-numbers have dropped.

if i had the space to do it, i'd try and attract sparrows by planting a huge quickset (hawthorn), privet/laurel and ivy hedge, putting up sparrow nestboxes and chucking lots of grain about. but i haven't so i can't.

[shirehorse]

Hi, I don't have to attract the Sparrows into my garden, they just appear, they have been with me all year round and I've watched the babies all grow up, I have no specail plants or bushes/hedges and my garden is very tiny so I don't know why they are attracted to it!

[storye_book]

hi shirehorse

if you've seen the babies - where are they nesting? maybe that would help answer the question? and maybe they like your garden because they feel safe? and maybe they get fed? it's hard to guess. anyway, i think you're very lucky. they used to irritate me when they were around - we'd look outside, and say, oh it's just sparrows again. and now there are none we miss them.

[Jabber]

I have lived at my present address for 26 years and this year is the first time that I have had up to 8 house sparrows at once on my feeders, previous years I have seen the odd one now and again but that is all. I live in a modern town house and they do not have the old style eaves that sparrows like for nesting. I have had a sparrow terrace on the wall for a few years but it's never been used.

[storye_book]

wow that is really good news. maybe they're adapting to a new source of food? i've seen quite a few on people's hanging feeders this year, but in previous years they mostly seemed to feed on the ground. twenty years ago, they were always described as ground feeders. i've also noticed some chaffinches managing to use stick-perches, though perhaps cj's new ring-perches will be better for them. has anyone out there seen the ring perches making it easier for some birds?

[Maisie]

We have plenty of sparrows. Our garden is somewhere in the region of half an acre, and is mostly bounded by hawthorn hedge with some leylandii. I know of 2 places where the sparrows nest - the roof at the front of our house, and in several holes in the concrete roof edging of our neighbour's eaves. The holes in the edging usually have a sparrow in each, greeting the world noisily in the mornings.

[shirehorse]

hi shirehorse

if you've seen the babies - where are they nesting? maybe that would help answer the question? and maybe they like your garden because they feel safe? and maybe they get fed? it's hard to guess. anyway, i think you're very lucky. they used to irritate me when they were around - we'd look outside, and say, oh it's just sparrows again. and now there are none we miss them.

Hi
I believe the baby Sparrows were nesting in the garden next door, one of the 'hedges' from next door runs along a 2ft fence dividing our gardens and they nested around that area. I should be grateful that they like my garden I suppose but the noise is just horrendous when 20-30 of them are all kicking off at the same time! Never mind, I am grateful that they are still around!

[70007]

We have a decent number of sparrows and they tend to nest in holes they find in roofs, where the flashing around a chimney stack has buckled, for instance.

I think this is the problem; most modern houses do not have chimneys and with roof tiles in good repair, there are few gaps to provide nesting sites. I also notice that on new housing estates there are few overhanging eaves so I imagine house martin numbers will decline also.

[Mealworm]

The key to nesting seems to be plenty of cover. I agree with the comment about modern houses not being bird friendly. People are also much less tolerant about issues such as bird poo on the cars etc and seem to discourage birds. Our house and garden would seem to fit the bill in regards to attracting sparrows so maybe we should chuck more food about and be patient. Thanks to all of you for your comments

[Ken]

The are quite a few in Beckenham Kent, I think its the bushes, shrubs etc which are the thing gives them a bit of security. I used to live in SE London and there were no sparrows but since moving here I am amazed by the variety of birds that come into the garden. Stacks of other wildlife too! I plan to make my garden bird friendly - even if the washing gets the occasional calling card!!

[Shamal]

The are quite a few in Beckenham Kent, I think its the bushes, shrubs etc which are the thing gives them a bit of security.

Hi Ken (and welcome)
I have noticed just how timid house sparrows have become, they don't have the same boldness that they used to and it is rare for the ones around here to stay in the open for long.

regards,
Shamal

[Loopy]

I have only had one or two sitings of one sparrow in the garden and that was last summer.

In Venice, they literally beg for food alongside the pigeons. One bloke was throwing crumbs from his shop door and about 10 sparrow's appeared and were waiting patiently on the ground for more scraps.

[Jenny]

My sparrows seem to disappear during the winter but this week they're back en masse. New nesting material is starting to be brought into the three usual spots where they can get in behind the fascia boards and this morning the clan was outside waiting for me to finish brushing the dog! For some reason the dog seems to moult all year round so I have a large bag of dog hair to put out come nesting time!

[Jules]

I have had a large number of sparrows in the garden (all year round) for some years now. Last year they raised 4 lots of young, from march to august, in the bird box placed on the coal bunker which is some 10 yards from my back door. I live in a largish garden with a long 6 foot high hedge running down one side which would back up the theory re shelter.

They will not eat from a feeder if it is hanging in the open. They will only feed from it if the feeder is hanging in the hedge at which time large numbers will congregate to take their turn to feed. In addition to this, they seem to be particularly fond of millet (I buy ordinary canary food) and will ignore sunflower hearts and other bird seeds in favour of this. Indeed, if there is no millet when they come to feed, they will not stop even if other food is available.

I should add also that there are sparrowhawks in the area which would maybe explain the sparrows' wise caution.

[PiratesAhoy!]

Clever! Spend all your time in the hedge - avoid the hawks.

[WoodyAcres]

I have loads of sparrows in my garden (bogh House and Tree). I was given some advice to let parts of the garden 'go a bit'. They seem to prefer the hawthorn hedge I have allowed to overgrow as a habitat rather than the rest of the garden. Although I have put in next boxes specially for them - I am not getting them nesting though.

[jeff]

Hi all

Not am I only new to the forum but I'm also very new to trying to attract birds into our garden so will need all the help I can get.

Back in the 70's I also remember there being thousands of sparrows and I noticed over the years their decline, I have lived in my present house (in Somerset) for the past 15 years and never noticed a sparrow? That was up until this year and we now have at least a dozen that come to our garden throughout the day, were only putting bread out for them at the moment until we learn what is best to buy for them, we also have starlings, pigeons, (that I'm afraid I don't like) we have a magpie that we have seen occasionally and we had a robin who I haven't seen for a few weeks and another one we get and don't like are seaguls although we are at least 25 miles from the coast.

I would like to breed my own mealworms because I see they can be expensive to keep buying, so any advice will be most welcome along with any more advice to keep these birds coming back throughout the year.

I have a bird table that the starlings seem to like more than the sparrows, we have a bird bath with fresh water every day, we have noticed that the sparrows much prefer to feed from the ground, so food also goes onto the ground for them.

Were would be the best place to put a nesting box for sparrows (if needed) but we do have plenty of tree's around us.

Any sort of help for a complete novice will be most welcome and I don't mind spending a few bob for equipment and food.

[70007]

Hello Jeff,

I have sparrows which nest in small gaps between my roof tiles and chimney breast. I find that they prefer the mixed seed style food that CJ sell as Premium Robin Food, although I tend to mix my own from various seeds, chopped nuts, value brand sultanas, porridge oats and a few handfuls of dried mealworms for good measure.

I scatter that quite widely around the lawn, in order to allow as many birds to have a chance of getting something. I also add some to a small table. The starlings, blackbirds etc will squabble over the dried fruit but the sparrows will eat smaller seeds and nuts.

I also have hanging port feeders (no perches) filled with sunflower hearts. While initially these are monopolised by tits and finches, the sparrows watch and copy other birds, and it is not long before they learn to cling onto a port and eat sunflower hearts as well.

John

[jeff]

Thanks John

I went into town today and called into the local pet shop and asked in there, it was a young boy serving and to be honest he didn't have a clue, so for the time being I bought a bag of mixed bird seed and will give that a go.

Still keen on producing my own mealworms so I'm just looking into the how's and when's at the moment.

[70007]

Hi Jeff,

Mixed bird seed is good for getting a variety of birds into the garden, I sometimes buy a bag from the pet shop when I cant be bothered to shop for the ingredients for my home made variety.

However, it will attract Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves which will try and monopolise it if you are not careful.

I did look into mealworm breeding but it seemed like too much potential trouble, not least from my wife who would draw the line at beetle breeding I think, even if it was confined to the garage. She was not keen on the live mealworms arriving by post.

As you may have read on another thread, the starlings consume all the live mealworms within minutes of them being put out, so I abandoned that idea and just mix dry ones with everything else which at least means they have to search for them. In my garden the live mealworms also attracted magpies which the other birds did not like at all, and so was another reason for my change of plan.

However, all gardens are different so let us know how your bird feeding progresses.

John

[jeff]

Thanks John...Food for thought regarding the meal worms, I don't have a problem with the meal worms, When I first told the boss lol What my plans were, her first reaction was YUK!...She has now come around to the idea and is even giving up one of her storage cabinets with 3 draws, on the condition I keep them in the workshop lol

I may have a small problem in that the boss only wants the small birds around and I often see her chasing away the pigeons and the other day we did notice a single magpie in next doors garden, so we know they are around, its the only one we have seen but I'm led to believe that they live in pairs?

Quite a few starlings around along with the sparrows so I don't mind feeding them mealworms, they seem to arrive late afternoon were the sparrows are around here all day long, so may be a good idea to wait until we Just see the sparrows and chuck some around for them.

[Ken]

This year there seems to more and more house sparrows around, they seem to have access to loft spaces via the front of houses (which is where I see them go.) We used to have a pair of dunnocks visit our garden but since I had to take out the shrub they used for a hiding place they have disappeared (the shrub was rotten and had begun to look the worse for wear)

We had loads of redwings this year due to the cold snap, they were a delight to watch. We also have several pairs of foxes around, yesterday a cub thought it would be nice to play with one of our cats, but she had other ideas and was fluffed up and lashing her tail before fleeing into the house.

We used to have lots of squirells as well but some guy has it seems been trapping and disposing of them!!

We just need to hang on to our wildlife.

[jeff]

We were quite often woken in the early hours of the morning by chicks chirping out, when I checked it out they were nesting in the attic, that was a few years ago and since then we had our house renovated and they are unable to get in there now, we have plenty of tree's around us so I wasn't too concerned.

I'm sat here now and I can count 8 sparrows in the garden, we have a bird bath with fresh daily water but they seem to enjoy bathing in the dust at the bottom of the garden and only go to the bird bath for a drink.

I keep a daily check on the two bees nests we have and I have a pile of dead branches at the bottom of the garden that is an eye sore but can't set fire to it because I know we have 3 slow worms living in there.

Like you say we have to hang onto our wild life.

[Hevva]

There is usually a flock of around 20 - 30 here each day, chirruping their way through the hedge. They do seem to prefer a mixed seed feeder placed on an open-weave fence and they all queue for their turn. Several babes seen this year as well - mum kept them altogether in a group letting them having fun in some sand around the pond and feeding them in turn. They do seem to have made a return to this area as around 10 years ago there wasn't one to be seen. Hopefully the fact that many more people now use feeders it has helped them survive. I did put a sparrow nest box in the hedge three years ago but it has never been used - should I have put it elsewhere?

[jeff]

OK I've taken the plunge and Just bought a couple of thousand mealworms from CJ wildlife, I'm in the middle of getting everything ready to start breeding them The boss (wife) said its fine provided I keep them out of the house, she has visions of millions of worms crawling everywhere, Not to worry dear I said "if times get hard we can always eat them our self’s like they do on I'm a celebrity get me out of here" She wasn't amused lol

I was told by the guy in the pet shop that he has robins feeding from his hand and he uses the dried ones but for some reason I like the challenge of breeding my own so I have a constant supply.

I told the pet shop guy that we had a Robin come to see us up until a couple of months ago and he said give it a couple of more weeks and he/she will be back, so at least I'll have a nice supply of nice juicy meal worms for him/her.

I’ll keep you up dated on my progress.

[70007]

So how does it work? You allow the worms to pupate and wait for the adults to emerge and they breed amongst themselves?

Do you need special food for this to happen or will bran do for the adults as well as the worms?

John

[jeff]

All my info was obtained from Utube video's and there are 3 stages.

You put something like oats on the bottom as a base and stick your mealworms into it, food is as simple as carrot peelings or lettuce and cabbage that have to be removed when dry to prevent smelling.

As soon as you see a pupae (nickname Alien) in the Mealworm tub, take it out and put it in another tub (as the mealworms will eat them) with weetabix or oats, keep doing this for about 2-3 weeks, by then the remaining aliens that form can be left in the mealworm tub if you wish, as the rest of the mealworms won't be interested in eating, but morphing themselves.
Aliens will remain aliens for about 2 weeks on average, you can tell when one is about to hatch, as you will see brown legs form underneath. Be alert at this time as you want to move the beetles just after they hatch as they will feed off other aliens.

Give the beetles the same substrate as the worms, about 2 inches, but make sure it is finely crumbled, so they will be able to lay eggs easily, also the baby mealworms when they hatch will be able to move around in it easily.
A female beetle will lay on average around 200 eggs. it can be up to 300, but it depends on temperatures. when my worm colony is bigger, I may consider heat lamps/mats during the winter months.

It all sounds interesting and simple but only time will tell.

[jeff]

We are the same, we love the smaller birds such as sparrows and we are getting quite a few visiting us now including all the young sparrows.

We are also getting starlings wood pigeons but the wife doesn't like the wood pigieons and we have Just noticed a member of the tit family visit us and the guy next door said they have been nesting in his nesting box, So I intend to put up a nesting box this year to see what I can get to nest.

I know we get a Robin visit us and I would like to see her nesting here.

[Jandy]

Our sparrows tend to congregate in the rather overgrown privet hedge in the front garden, though all the bird food is put out in the back. We leave the hedge unclipped all summer, as we have had blackbirds nesting in it in the past.