Why Sparrows Need Hedges

The Defra Pamphlet: House Sparrows in Great Britain

I first saw the Department of Food and Rural Affairs' pamphlet: 'House Sparrows in Great Britain' on the morning of the National House Sparrow Conference, held at City Hall in London on Friday 20th February, 2004. This Defra event was also the launch venue of the leaflet, which was compiled with input from both the RSPB and BTO.

I read it thoroughly and was disappointed it did not specifically mention privet hedges in the list of suitable trees and shrubs that can provide thick cover for house sparrows. This is a bad omission. It lists birch, elder, spindle, hawthorn, honeysuckle, ivy, bramble and wild roses, but apart from ivy, the rest are not evergreen! It misses the point somewhat that thick cover is probably more essential for birds in wintertime.

Privet is our commonest plant used for hedging and is easily recognised. It's a relative of the Olive tree, and if left to flower, produces small dark berries readily eaten by birds. The plants listed in the Defra leaflet may produce berries but little all-year cover.

The importance of privet is that it's an evergreen, and was the most widely used hedging plant in our city's sprawling suburbs, providing a network of reliable hedgerow that house sparrows could utilise in their daily search for food. No mention is made of the fact that house sparrows also like to congregate in large noisy groups. Hedges provide the perfect safe structure for them to do this - and the bigger the hedge the better!

In a list of food plants suitable for house sparrows, the Defra leaflet mentions both cotoneaster and pyracantha (firethorn) but fails to point out that these are doubly beneficial as they also provide excellent dense cover all year. And while it feebly suggests leaving a 'small weedy patch' in your garden, to help feed sparrows, nowhere does it strongly state about not destroying your whole front garden and block paving it to park your car on, or not building some great daft decking structure in your back garden, covering up even more potential feeding ground.

The leaflet does suggest putting up communal nest boxes, recognising the loss of suitable nooks and crannies in modern roofs. This is a good idea if house sparrows are already in the area and discover a new nest box during their foraging. But unlike tits etc., sparrows aren't as adventurous, and unless there is adequate cover for them to travel by in their daily search for food, they seem reluctant to take the risk of flying far from their established nest sites, and may never find a new nest box no matter how well intentioned the caring homeowner is. The importance of a continuation of protective cover provided by hedging should have been included.

The Defra leaflet generally contains good advice for helping house sparrows - and other birds will also benefit if people are more relaxed about their gardens and don't tidy out the wildlife potential. I found it disappointing that the importance of thick cover for house sparrows wasn't emphasized more strongly, as I believe it's the destruction of our urban and suburban hedgerow that's directly led to the house sparrow's continued decline from our towns and cities.

I quite expect any updated version to include a detailed section referring to the importance of hedges, especially privet, in the life and well-being of house sparrows. If not, then those at the National Sparrow Conference weren't listening when I spoke briefly during the question and answer session!

This link will take you to the Defra pdf version of the leaflet: defra PDF leaflet