Sparrows Need Hedges

Why there are no House Sparrows in London's Royal Parks.

I was asked last year why there were no House Sparrows in the Royal Parks anymore. Often when the bird's demise is discussed, the dramatic decline of sparrows in Kensington Gardens during the last century is frequently referred to. Also, as a child I remember feeding sparrows in St. James Park.

As I was not very familiar with these parks, I took a bus journey south one sunny Saturday in September to try and figure out this mystery.

Just by walking around these parks, you can see there isn't anything remotely resembling typical house sparrow habitat. There are plenty of trees, but being parks there are few buildings, and apart from some neat gardens with various ornamental shrubs and bushes, no dense hedges or hawthorn. On the ground there were plenty of squirrels and some blackbirds and robins continually turning over the dried leaf litter.

In St. James they have made a better effort of irrigation than Kensington Gardens due to its smaller size, but both have suffered from the hot dry summer with parched grass and the ground very hard. Along with pigeons and wood pigeons, many carrion crows were evident, especially in Kensington Gardens, but thankfully various bird song could be heard emanating from the Palace gardens. The Round Pond is extremely small-bird unfriendly, with no cover at all around its concrete edge.

Apart from the abundant waterfowl on the Long Water, including a cormorant, there was one part of Kensington Gardens that was an oasis of bird life. This is the fenced area behind the Peter Pan statue, which is quite extensive and contains the ground maintenance team's sheds and equipment. It has many trees and dense scrub and is not disturbed by the public. Speaking to a helpful antipodean worker who had driven out of the gate, he listed a few birds he'd seen in the enclosure - starting with parakeets, as if these were commonplace! When I asked him if there were sparrows there, he asked what they looked like! and said there were various small birds about.

Amused at this I walked around the perimeter of the enclosure, and did indeed see parakeets! - bright green and squawking loudly! Also seen were a jay, blackbird, robin and both blue and great tits, but the best was hearing then seeing a male house sparrow, flying from a poplar tree growing at the edge of the lake into a bush near the Peter Pan statue.

St. James Park also has an area for the groundskeepers, fenced off with various sheds and surrounded by trees. Again a similar mix of garden birds were noted, but sadly no sparrows - or parakeets!

I'm sure the vast majority of sparrows seen in the parks years ago never lived there, as there are few buildings, but came in from their nests in the surrounding properties to feed. Over the years these buildings have been made bird proof or replaced, making it impossible for house sparrows to thrive. A cottage near Westbourne's gate, close to the fountains in Kensington Gardens had fine mesh anti-bird nets fixed around the eaves.

I noticed other buildings outside the park nearby also have these nets and thin metal spikes along their edges. Where do people expect house sparrows to nest? Measures to stop pigeons will also discourage sparrows nesting - and starlings as well, for they also liked to nest in buildings and they too are on the decline.

Central London properties are well maintained, belonging to governments, large companies or the rich. Hedges pose security problems and have been removed. Dilapidated buildings do not exist anymore. All vacant sites have been built on, and massive schemes like Chelsea Harbour, King's Cross and Paddington are designed for people not wildlife.

Later as I walked through Covent Garden, I could hear house sparrows and eventually located them several floors up on an extensive roof garden on a building with dense shrubbery spilling over the edges of the balconies. This was an amazing find, and indicated that if enough of the right habitat is available, it can sustain a sparrow colony amid the concrete jungle.

Early last century, London housed thousands of horses used for transport. Stables have always been the ideal habitat for sparrows. The bird's noticeable decline in cities since the 1930's is blamed on the replacement of horses by the internal combustion engine. Old style stables provided practically all a contented sparrow colony needed. There was straw for nesting in the many nooks and crannies of the roof, water for drinking and bathing, a dung heap for insects, and plenty of grain available from the horse feed.

It's not by accident that Army barracks were situated around the edges of the central London parks. They offered open space to exercise both men and horses used for functional and ceremonial duties. The original ramshackled wooden stables have long been replaced, and those that still have horses, like Hyde Park barracks, re-opened in 1970, are typical examples of sixties designed, concrete architecture that's wholly unfriendly to sparrows. Modernisation of the few large stables left in London, directly contributed to the further reduction of central London sparrow populations, especially in the Royal Parks.

New buildings and the renovation of existing ones surrounding the parks with ongoing pigeon defence measures, have all conspired against the house sparrows' chance of living successfully in London. As London has changed, the places for sparrows to nest have diminished. Continued development in the suburbs including the loss of front gardens, has decimated London's main sparrow breeding grounds, ending any surplus birds migrating to the centre.

House sparrows choose to live close to human habitation. They like to nest in our houses where it is dry, and be within easy reach of a safe garden and a selection of bugs and seed producing plants. If the humans put out scraps of food even better, especially if there is also cover for them to hide, rest and socialise in.

If we discourage the sparrow by removing nest holes, eradicating cover and paving over gardens, we shouldn't be surprised to have flocks of pigeons taking the food we put out. Unlike the sparrow, these birds have no qualms about flying miles to feed and can live on ledges, and in the case of wood pigeons, trees. Their increase, and that of the collared dove, is not causing sparrows to be driven away, they have just exploited the decline of the house sparrow, as there is now less competition for food.

Along with citing cats, magpies and sparrowhawks for the birds demise, again it is easier to blame other species than the actual culprit - human beings! While sparrow experts may get paid to continue looking for the elusive reason for the birds' alarming disappearance, I'm stating it's the destruction of its preferred habitat that's primarily to blame - namely loss of adequate cover, i.e. hedges.

By holding on to the idea there is some 'scientific' explanation that has yet to be discovered, society is absolving itself of blame. People assume they can rip out their front gardens and hedges and bird proof their roofs, while developers can demolish perfectly decent traditional houses with gardens, and replace them with sterile blocks of apartments, knowing they cannot be blamed for sparrow decline, because the scientists are still working on the problem. Hedgehogs and starlings are suffering too.

Despite the obvious reasons for the sparrows' plight already being indicated in certain published documents, the wrong conclusions are being drawn. Researchers have yet to accept the mundane reason of habitat loss as the key cause of sparrow decline. It's the fundamental problem from which the sparrows' other troubles stem. There is no neat little answer that when found can be easily reversed and happy sparrows will chirrup everywhere. The causes of the destruction are many.

To actually reverse the destruction of its habitat is a daunting task. Try getting your local council to stop housing development - the increased council tax return is too alluring. Try telling your neighbours not to pave over their front gardens for their cars, but instead grow and maintain their hedges. Try telling people they should have sparrows in their roof, with the mess and noise that goes with them. These things are very difficult to do.

Even London's GLA Biodiversity Group is working towards understanding the reasons by 2010! How much time do they need? Sparrow loss is happening now. I can take anyone and show them places where there are sparrows and to places where there are not. On three occasions this year I have been driving along unfamiliar roads in my borough and thought: this is a place where sparrows would live. Each time I've stopped my vehicle, wound the windows down and been proved right by seeing house sparrows sitting in privet hedges chirruping away - in gardens of traditional houses.

How come these birds have escaped the scourge of the unknown scientific explanation? It's because they've been left alone. No one's disturbed their habitat. Even something as mundane as having pebble-dashed walls are a help. Sparrows can cling to it to search out gaps in soffit boards for access to the roof. But just somewhere to nest is not enough. Birds need to eat, and unless there is cover for the birds to fly into to feel safe and have somewhere to sit, rest and preen, then even food is not enough. Hedges are the last bastions for the sparrow. If need be they can be nest, food store, cover and they have bare earth underneath for dust baths, and that's why they are so important.

House sparrows do not live where they cannot live. There is no undiscovered single scientific cause, and the sooner this revelation is accepted the quicker an admission of culpability can be made and society can actually take action to halt the destruction of sparrow habitat and possibly reverse the decline.