[wisb] House Sparrows - Colonial nesting in open in Lake Mills, Jefferson Co.
- From: Karen Etter Hale <chimneyswift1@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 21:46:10 -0500
This past June, I was very surprised to find at least 11 House Sparrow
nests built close together, in the open, in one dense, thorny, ten-foot
tall hawthorn shrub here in Lake Mills. These were all globular
(spherical) nests with side entrances. There have always been numerous
House Sparrows that keep up a continuous chattering in that area, but I
assumed they were nesting in nearby structures. I never thought they'd
be in a shrub that is essentially isolated as it's several yards from
any buildings and bordered by several feet of blacktop on either side.
Here's a link to some of the photos I tried to take of the nests.
They're not the best, as the hawthorn is very thick, making it difficult
to count or photograph the nests. I'm planning to go back once the
leaves are off and try again.
https://plus.google.com/photos/102295740065781614442/albums/6028318541087446353?banner=pwa
Googling the topic produced very few results. But according to the Birds
of North America:
"Tolerance of neighbors allows communal nesting to occur in some cases."
(McGillivray 1986).
House Sparrows are "Fairly gregarious at all times of the year; breeding
occurs in small colonies or in a clumped distribution." (Summers-Smith
1988) [which I took to mean nesting close together in places like Purple
Martin houses].
"In trees, forked or dense branching provide an anchoring platform for
nests." And finally, "Nests in trees are usually globular structures
with a side entrance, a squashed ball 30-40 cm. in diameter. Neighboring
nests may share walls."
If any of you has any experience with this, I'd love to know about it.
It sure took me by surprise.
Karen
--
/Karen Etter Hale
Lake Mills, WI
NW Jefferson County
chimneyswift1@xxxxxxxxxx
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