TWITTERING SPARROWS ARE DWINDLING

Some of the most cherished moments in my life are from my formative years, when I used to spend a small part of my summer and winter holidays at my maternal grandparents home in an agrarian village. The house is surrounded by trees with a village pond in front of the courtyard and I used to see a lot of sparrows, pigeons, warblers, barbets, bee-eaters, kingfishers, golden orioles and sun birds. One of the best moments I cherish even to this day are the soothing chirpy voices of the birds breaking the dead silence that used to prevail for most part of the day in the grandparents home. To this day, I dream of living in such pleasant surroundings, but the professional and personal life overruled such pleasures in my life till date.

In earlier times, small and beautiful house sparrows (Passer domesticus) used to find some space to build their nests in the verandas, ventilators, eaves, crannies and at perches of the houses and were often seen on the window ledges and garden trees, twittering busily. They have a commensally relationship with humans. House sparrows are aggressive, highly social, tolerant of disturbance by humans and fairly intelligent, which increased their ability to compete with most native birds. However, their presence has become a rarity over the years, especially in towns and cities, due to the following possibilities.

Loss of Habitat

However, in the recent times, sparrow population is fast declining due to loss of their habitats in towns and cities due to the new pattern of architecture, life styles, lack of farming, food sources and lack of gardens. Equally, the release of radiation from the mobile and the TV towers together with release of carbon monoxide from automobiles has also been a cause of death of sparrows.
Widespread use of chemicals & Introduction of unleaded petrol The widespread use of chemical pesticides in farmlands has resulted in the killing of insects. Moreover, the introduction of unleaded petrol, believed to be eco-friendly, has harmful byproducts. The fuel uses Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) as an anti-knocking agent which besides byproducts of combustion kills small insects. The insecticidal nature of the chemicals and byproducts makes the food for those birds feeding on insects scarce. The adult sparrows can survive without insects in their diet. The seed-eating sparrows have to depend on the soft-bodied insects to feed their young ones, especially for the first few days after hatching. With fewer insects to feed on, the infant mortality rates of sparrow chicks went up and overall sparrow population is declining.
Lack of evolution Furthermore, Sparrows do not migrate and are known to be quite parochial, often spending all their lifetimes in a local neighborhood, unlike the ever increasing Blue Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) which can fly great distances, due to their size, to feed and are not affected by the kind of insect food problems that sparrows face. They produce a pre-digested slurry called pigeon-milk which they regurgitate for their chicks. Sparrows, unfortunately, have not evolved this.
Increasing predation on sparrows The other possibility can be increased predation by ever increasing population of crows and cats. The large amount of garbage generated in the Cities and towns increased the feed availability for scavenger birds like crows, mynahs and kites thereby helping them to rapidly increase their population.

Ecological balance is disturbed due to dwindling sparrow population

96 per cent of the adult diet of house sparrows is made up of livestock feed, plant materials like grain, fruits, seeds, and garden plants. If sparrows are not saved, the ecological balance would get disturbed as these birds feed on seeds and small insects and maintain the nature's balance.

Simple efforts to save dwindling sparrow population

The following efforts by humans can save this tiny and cute bird from disappearing from cities and towns:

ü  Keeping a bowl of water on the terrace and windows to save sparrows from dying due to thirst during peak summer season.

ü  Sprinkling of bread crumbs, bajra or other grains in open areas/ window sills to attract sparrows.

ü  Increasing their habitats in modern houses by placing a top less medium size mud pot with very small holes at the bottom, or similar nesting object in the inaccessible locations of a house.