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House Sparrow Passer domesticus

Usually know as the "little brown birds that are hard to watch because they fly away". House sparrows are actually not sparrows, but finches -- they have beaks designed for eating seeds. Compare the shape of their beaks with those of chickadees at the feeder. They are also not native to the US. They were introduced in the 1800's from Europe as part of an attempt to have all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare breed in Central Park (New York City) -- same is true for starlings.

There are three color variants: males, females and immature of both sexes -- only one is shown here [male]. Two color variants are very similar, they other is very distinct -- you figure out which color pattern belongs to which sex and to juveniles and then tell us why the differences. Darwin noticed a repeated pattern of coloration in birds and used it as an important part of his theory of sexual selection. See if you can figure out his argument. One sex and the juveniles are usually very similar while the other sex is often quite brightly marked. Why should coloration change with sex AND age and not just with sex.

Do sparrows forage singly or in small groups? How coordinated are the groups (is there a leader, are they synchronized? What happens just before they all fly away? That means, what did one or more of them do, not what did you or someone else do. When they come back, is there a pattern to the way they move as a group? If this makes little sense to you, go watch foraging pigeon groups for a while and then watch sparrows again -- now do you see the differences? Can you explain them?

Check out their bird identification web page at: http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/birdphotos/birdpintro.htm

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