The House Sparrow is perhaps the most numerous bird in our garden. Happily, a reduction in the number of nesting sites in the house roof caused by recent repair work seems to have had no effect on their numbers.
They are regular users of the feeders, usually arriving en masse and queueing up in the nearby hedge, but the sparrows will also do their bit at picking aphids off the roses.
The first brood of youngsters usually emerges in mid May (bottom right) and then the feeders are even busier, with parents collecting food and returning to the fledglings waiting, in the hedge.
Photograph - May 2003
Photograph - June 2002
Photograph - May 2002
Photograph - June 2003
In 2009 I noticed an adult who had decided to cut out all this flying to and fro and instead was introducing the youngsters to the feeder directly. The parent still seems to be selecting and masticating the seed before passing it to the offspring but it looks as if it won't be long before the juveniles are using the feeder themselves.
In case you are wondering about the musical accompaniment, I shot the video from my armchair during an interval in a vintage Goon Show! I initially intended to delete the soundtrack but it does seem to fit, in an odd sort of way.
