[wisb] Re: House Sparrows - Colonial nesting in open in Lake Mills, Jefferson Co.
- From: "Stuart Malcolm" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "stuart.malcolm26@xxxxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: "judith@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <judith@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:31:39 -0500
House Sparrows normally nest in small colonies. They are very attached to their
own particular small bush (it took the birds that nested in my next door
neighbours garden over two years to venture the few yards into my garden in my
last UK house).
House Sparrow nest boxes in the UK are also partitioned to allow 3 or 4 nests
in the one long box.
They also like to nest in the lower levels of Stork nests in Europe, which is
fun to watch. I think they are fascinating, tough little birds.
If we could catch all the ones over here and send them back to repopulate
London (where they have almost vanished) then everyone would be happy!!!
Good Birding
Stuart Malcolm
Neenah, Winnebago Cty
Sent from my iPhonef
> On 12 Aug 2014, at 05:05, Judith Huf <judith@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Yes Karen,
> I have seen this behavior on a trip to Arizona last spring. It surprised me
> greatly too. There were a number of spherical nests like you described all in
> one tree a rest area in the desert. I think I have a photo of it somewhere,
> but I'm not in town right now, I'll try to dig it up later whenI'm home.
> Judith Huf
> Milwaukee
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Aug 11, 2014, at 10:46 PM, Karen Etter Hale <chimneyswift1@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> 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
>> *****
>> *Making time for birds
>>
>> * /
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