House sparrow

The bird is one of the most commonly found birds around the household and is called Passer Domesticus scientifically. The bird belongs to the family of old world sparrows. The bird can be seen in plenty around Europe and Asian region. It is known that this bird has followed human beings, wherever they have gone and that’s how it got introduced to every part of New Zealand, Australia, Saharan Africa and America too. The bird is also referred to as English sparrow which helps it to be differentiated from other species which are native of United States.
This bird, the house sparrow is the native of North Africa, Asia and Europe but now found in almost every part of the globe. In North America, some hundred birds were released and thus they started growing in that part of the country. The bird is commonly found in the agricultural areas and suburban parts. The bird loves to be in the forests, deserts, grasslands or any untouched part of the woodland. They are also well known to evict the species living there, from their nests.
The bird is around 16 cms in length and lives in moderate climatic condition. The population declines with hilly areas and cold weather. The male has a grey crown with a black throat. The cheeks and the under parts are also black in colour with bill and eyes have blacking tones. The bird’s bill looks bluish black during summer and changes the legs to be of brown overtones too. The young ones of this bird are deeper brown in colour and will have a dull yellow colour beak. For these looks, the bird is often confused with the typical tree sparrow which also looks exactly similar to that.
The bird is quite gregarious and can be seen nesting in huge colonies. The grown up birds eat seeds or any available grain, whereas the younger ones survive on the larva of the insects till they grow up. They also eat up flowers during the spring season and the ones with yellow flowers are their favourites. The bird has also been recorded to have hunted butterflies in some cases. The call of this bird is short spanned with a chirp voice. They also use a different voice to communicate their presence to the younger ones in the nest from a distance.
The nesting place of this bird keeps changing with environment and they can get into holes in rocks, houses, sea cliffs, masonry or places under the eaves. The nest is filled up with feather when they live in holes and the arrangement is also quite bizarre. As they make nests on trees, the formation is quite huge and very well executed. House sparrows lay around 5 to 6 eggs at a time and these eggs are normally blue tinted, or brown, ash grey or black in colour and that’s a common variance. The size of these eggs too is variable and shapes can be different as well sometimes. The female is the one responsible for incubating the eggs and it takes around 10 to 12 days to finish the process.