House Sparrow is the most famous bird in the world. Sparrow belongs to those few species of birds that have become indispensable residents of rural and city streets. It seems that without these nimble neighbors it would be boring for us to live.
House Sparrow: Description
Sparrow - a small bird, its body length is about 15-17 cm, weight is 24-35 g, but at the same time it has a strong physique. The head is rounded and rather large. The beak is about one and a half centimeters long, plump, conical in shape. The tail is about 5-6 cm, the legs are 1.5-2.5 cm. Males are larger than females in size and weight.
Sparrow-girls and sparrow-boys also differ in the color of their feathers. The same upper body is brown, the lower part is light gray and wings with a white-yellow stripe located across. A noticeable difference between females and males in the color of the head and breast. In boys, the top of the head is dark gray, below the eyes there is a light gray plumage, on the neck and chest there is a clearly distinguishable black spot. Girls have a light brown head and neck.
House Sparrow Ecology
Sparrows live next to human housing, they have scattered at this time almost around the world, but initially the majority of Europe and Western Asia are considered the birthplace of these birds .
The house sparrow is found in settlements, starting from the west of Europe and to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, in the north of Europe reaches the Arctic coast, Siberia is also inhabited by these nimble little birds. In most of East and Central Asia, the sparrow does not live.
Birds can adapt perfectly to the conditions in which they find themselves. These are sedentary birds, only from northern cold places during the frosty winter migrate to where it is warmer, in a southerly direction.
Lifestyle
As mentioned earlier, the brownie sparrow loves to settle next to people, maybe because of this it has received the name "brownie". Gray birds can live in pairs, but it happens that they create entire colonies. For example, when feeding, they always gather in large flocks. When it is not necessary to sit in nests on eggs or with chicks, sparrows settle down in bushes or on tree branches for the night.
In the air, a bird develops a flight speed of up to 45 km / h, walks on the ground, like most other birds, a sparrow cannot, moves in leaps. It will not drown in a pond, as it can swim, and also a good diver.
Breeding
In the mating season, house sparrows are divided into pairs, then the male and female together begin the construction of the dwelling. Nests are built in the crevices of structures and buildings, in hollows, in burrows, on the slopes of ravines, in shrubs and on tree branches. A sparrow house is made from small twigs, dry grass and straw.
During April, the future sparrow mother lays eggs; in the nest there are from 4 to 10 eggs, white with brown spots. 14 days after the female landed on her eggs, helpless chicks appear. Dad and mom look after the hatched offspring together, feed the babies with insects. Within two weeks, the chicks fly out of the nest.
Life span
Sparrows in nature live long enough, their life expectancy is about 10-12 years. A case of longevity has been recorded - a sparrow from Denmark lived for 23 years, his other relative did not reach his twentieth birthday a little.
The problem of these birds is that a lot of young birds die before they reach the age of one. The hardest time for young animals is winter. If they manage to live to see their first spring, then they have a chance to meet old age. At this time, about 70% of passerine youth do not live up to a year.
Nutrition
The house sparrow can well do without water, the amount of moisture necessary for its existence, it receives from juicy berries. Birds feed mainly on plant foods. Favorite delicacy - seeds of grain crops. Sparrow is not picky, eats what gets caught, his diet includes grass seeds, tree buds, various berries. These birds do not disdain waste products from garbage cans, experience tells them that in these iron boxes you can find a lot of tasty things. Insects rarely get into the sparrow menu, only during feeding of the nestlings, the bugs and worms become daily food, since it is with them that the parent birds feed their cubs. Sparrows also do not forget about sand, it is necessary for the bird's ventricle to digest food. If the sand does not work out, then small pebbles are used.
Subfamily Sparrows are real
To the subfamily Sparrows are true house sparrow, snow reel, field sparrow. I would like to draw attention to the snow finch, popularly called the snow sparrow. These birds are quite beautiful, they are lighter and larger than the brownie. The snow finch is grayish-brown above, and white below, the wings are black and white. If you watch a bird in flight, it creates the appearance of a white bird with black spots. The throat of a male finch is black, its head is gray, its tail is long white with a black stripe located along it. This species of sparrows was called "snowy" because of their almost white plumage.
Field, unlike snow, is much smaller than brownie. Sparrow field and brownie (males) are similar in color to the hull and wings, you can easily distinguish them by the color of the head. The field relative of the brownie is “dressed” in a chestnut hat, which is separated from the brownish back by a narrow little white collar. A black spot is planted on the white cheeks of a field sparrow; on the neck the spot is very small. Males and females of this species of birds are “dressed” in the same clothes, their color is no different.
Both brownie and field sparrows settle next to people. Field, this is noticeable in name, mostly live in rural areas, and house, respectively, to a greater extent - urban residents. Birds try to stay away from the school, mixed colonies of both species are very rare. White, black, gray - the difference between sparrows is not too big, they are firmly united by one thing - the neighborhood with a person. Life without these restless birds does not even seem to be, they are not going to leave us, so the feathery neighborhood has been provided for us for a very long time.