Beak of the Week - House Sparrow

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Family: Passeridae

The House Sparrow is easy to find year-round, even in the heat of summer. House Sparrows thrive in urban environments, where there are often very few resources available for birds, but they can also be found in a variety of suburban and agricultural landscapes. Where food is available, large flocks of House Sparrows are commonly seen congregating in hedgerows. House Sparrows will visit feeders, but they are just as likely to be found hopping around parks and searching picnic areas for crumbs.

House Sparrows are small, plump birds with strong, conical bills that can easily crack seeds. Adult male House Sparrows are mostly reddish brown with a light grayish underside and a prominent black “bib”; their heads are patterned with darker rusty brown and have a gray patch on top. Female and young House Sparrows are streaked brownish-gray overall and have a lighter stripe near their eyes.

Despite sharing a common name with many other well-known species of North American birds, the House Sparrow is in a different family from other “sparrows” of North America. It is originally native to Eurasia and northern Africa, though it has spread alongside human development and is now established in urban areas almost worldwide.

By Aidan Healey, Conservation Technician, Houston Audubon
Photos by Greg Lavaty
---
Learn about Texas birds in our Bird Gallery!

Comments

How to DIY a Dripper for birds

Are you running out of home projects to keep busy during the quarantine? Here’s one my hubby made for me that you can try: a DYI Dripper. I’ve long wanted a bird dripper to complement my yard’s wildlife habitat, and with spring migrants on the way, I was keen to provide a drip that will attract new birds that don’t visit feeders. I had a problem though. There is no water line or power source near my feeders. The idea of stringing a hose or wire across the driveway just isn’t practical. Enter the engineer. My husband thought about the location and the limitations for a bit, and came up with the concept of sourcing water for a dripper off the sprinkler system. By using a toilet tank that fills every time the sprinklers run, water can be constantly available for the drip. I nixed the idea of a toilet tank sitting in my yard though, so he made some aesthetic modifications by installing a toilet tank float inside a 5 gallon bucket hidden inside a custom wooden box with a handsome copper p...

The Purple Martin Spectacle

July on the upper Texas Coast is hot – too hot for many of us to enjoy getting out and birding. However, the early mornings and early evenings can be bearable, and provide an opportunity to see some of the birds that will soon be leaving us. Fortunately, we have our resident birds to enjoy and, come fall, our wintering birds will begin arriving. But that means the birds we consider our "summer birds" will soon be departing and will not return until next spring. A few of these include the Chimney Swift, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Common Nighthawk, Barn Swallow, Mississippi Kite, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and many others. One of our iconic summer birds is the Purple Martin , our largest swallow, and the only swallow we have that is all dark. While it is called a Purple Martin, this bird is more of a blue-black with some purplish sheen when the sunlight hits the feathers at a certain angle. Many birders anticipate the early arrival of “scouts,” a term used for the arrival o...

Beak of the Week - Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird ( Archilochus colubris ) Family: Trochilidae Did you know that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are able to fly in all 6 directions with wing beats of 53 times per a second? Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are bright emerald or golden-green on the back and crown with gray-white underparts. Males have a brilliant iridescent red throat while females and immatures have fine, dark throat streaking. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of red or orange tubular flowers as well as at hummingbird feeders and sometimes tree sap. Hummingbirds also catch insects in midair or pull them out of spider webs. In preparation for their migration, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds double their weight from 3 grams to over 6 grams prior to departing. In the fall, millions of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will pass through Texas on their migration to points south of the border with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight. They arrive from breeding grounds as far away as Nova Scotia...

Houston Audublog

Search This Blog