Tree sparrows in the garden - a success story

 Tree sparrows have been breeding in a nest box in our Co. Durham garden, and in our next door neighbours' garden, for about a decade now. It has been heartening to see their numbers increase, especially since this has been a declining species in many parts of the country. 

These handsome finches are frequent visitors to the bird feeders and are one of the most assertive species, chasing away most other birds that try to compete. Only siskins, which are much smaller but even more feisty, can out-compete them. 

Tree sparrows

I hadn't knowingly seen a tree sparrow Passer montanus until nine years ago, when we had one as a garden visitor. More recently their numbers seem to have been increasing in the North East, after decades of decline, and they have bred in a nest box in the garden every year for the last three years. They are beautifully marked little birds, with their chestnut crown, black-spotted white cheeks and mottled wing plumage.

 We now have a small flock of about a dozen that congregate in an old weeping pear tree and they have become the dominant finches on the bird feeders in winter.

They are notably assertive birds and will regularly see off the house sparrows, whose numbers seem to be declining here. 

Tree sparrows have a fierce, almost brutal countenance when viewed head-on, and some interesting research has been carried out in house sparrows on the significance of that black bib under the beak. It's known as the badge, and the larger the badge, the higher the individual is in the pecking order and the more likely it is to secure a mate.

Conflict always ensues whenever tree and house sparrows share the same suet ball feeder - and the tree sparrows invariably dominate. 

Click here for an audio file of their song

Sparrows

Strange, isn't it, how you can be 'blind' to some common species? Our front garden hedge is always full of a noisy flock of sparrows and they quite often wake me up in the morning when they sit on the gutter and chirrup, but I think I've only ever photographed a house sparrow once, and then only because of a curious bit of insect behaviour. 

Maybe it's because they were just too common to appreciate in their own right, always there, and there was always something else interesting and less familiar to point a lens at.

But they really are very handsome little birds, even when they are in the middle of the breeding season, as this one was, and looking a bit scruffy. And just look at that beak - I've got a pair of pliers like that in my toolbox. There are flocks of sparrows in the wheat fields around here right now, using that well-adapted piece of equipment to shred the cereal seed heads.

What really made me look at sparrows more closely was the arrival of a tree sparrow on our bird table last winter. It was gone before I could reach my camera but, even amongst the more colourful finches, its plumage was striking and I realised then that I had never knowingly really looked a tree sparrow before. So since then I've been on the lookout for them.

This harassed looking example was taking a break from feeding fledglings ......

.... revealing that lovely chestnut crown, black cheek patch and white neck ring ....