Real reason sparrows are in decline

24 February 2006

Your news item (Huge drop in sparrows, H&H February 17) blaming the lack of live food for their young, does not explain the obvious question: how come other garden birds that rely almost entirely on 'live food' throughout the year are not in serious decline?

The research findings only highlight the end result of a more pernicious reason causing house sparrow numbers to fall - habitat loss.

House sparrows thrive best where they have adequate cover, enabling them to perch, preen, rest, digest, squabble and socialise; and also to hide from predators if need be.

Front garden loss, especially the removal of evergreen privet hedges that bordered front gardens, offering all-year shelter around safe foraging zones for sparrows, who tend not to venture too far from their nests - is to blame for house sparrow decline.

Too many front gardens have been lost in our suburbanised districts, as highlighted in two recent reports, one from the Greater London Authority and the other by the Royal Horticultural Society.

The introduction of controlled parking zones has exacerbated the problem of front garden destruction.

Incredibly, the flock of three dozen sparrows I feed regularly in a well-hedged park are not dying out, nor were the many successful broods that were born last year in the council housing areas of my borough (Barnet) where about half the residents have not (or cannot) carelessly remove their front gardens and hedges for car parking.

However, in the more affluent private districts where big foreign four-wheel drive vehicles sit on an austere block-paved frontage, tailgate overhanging the pavement, sparrows are now a rarity.

Couple this devastating loss of habitat with the selfish mentality of the typical estate agent and surveyor, who see birds nesting in roofs as vermin to be eradicated, and is it any wonder this brave little bird, which has endured its association with man for centuries, is finding it hard to survive alongside us.

If there are fewer places for them to nest, feed and find shelter, then of course it is harder for sparrows to survive.

For more information, please visit my website: www.sparrowsneedhedges.com where there are many articles and photographs highlighting habitat loss.

Donald E Lyven
Glenhill Close, N3