Louise Letnick, age 11, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for her question:
Is the house sparrow a serious pest?
Some people rate the house sparrow as a serious pest but bird experts usually rate him merely as an aggravating little nuisance. He is called the European sparrow or the English sparrow as a tribute to his native home. He also has been called the tramp, the hoodlum and the gamin, which is a sort of street bandit. These less flattering aliases are clues of his nasty character and to his city dwelling preferences.
Our native sparrows are dear little birds who live shy lives in the woods and thickets. Until the 1850s, they were the only sparrows of North America. Actually, they are finches, but the early settlers from the Old World called them sparrows because this was their name for other small birds of Europe and Asia. Apparently they forgot that their Old World sparrow was an aggressive little bully.
They remembered only that this little broom bird was a city dweller, who fluttered and chirruped around horses and stables, scratching for oats and other grain. They also recalled that he devoured the dropworm, a caterpillar who devours the foliage of certain shade trees. These memories of home led to a sad mistake. It was decided to import the European sparrow to city life in north America.
The first eight pairs arrived from England in 1850 and failed to survive in Brooklyn, New York. The next year more arrived and survived. About 20 more shipments were imported during the next 30 years. It is not known whether they devoured the caterpillars as expected. But we do know that the nasty little house sparrow soon began to display his belligerant character.
He also proved his talent for multiplying hatching brood after brood through the summer seasons. And he liked to travel. IIe hitched rides on the old horse andbuggy and some say he even rode boxcars on the railroads. In a few years the multiplying flocks from New York spread throughout the continental United States, up to Canada and down to :Mexico. In 1913, house sparrows arrived in San Diego.
Long before this, people were thoroughly fed up with the so called English sparrow. Isis shabby nests infested buildings in the cities and on the farms. The aggressive little bully drove away purple martins, bluebirds and other charming and useful birds that formerly lived near human habitations. A generation ago, nobody had a good word to say for the quarrelsome loud mouthed house sparrow. Nowadays his numbers are decreasing, possibly because horses have been replaced by autos.
Though we call him a sparrow, he is not related to our sweet singing sparrows of the finch family. The so called house sparrow is a shabby cousin of the elegant weavers. These well mannered birds are master builders and their nests are works of art. Some have handsome plumage and very long graceful tails. Unlike the brash little house sparrow, they avoid cities and live quietly in the wilds.