And these little creatures have disappeared so fast for reasons no one seems to know. There are campaigns on for people to get some nesting boxes with info on how to attract and nurture these cute little barometers of ecological health. Experts point to the lack of space for nesting, pollution and use of pesticides (even in home gardens) as some important factors for this population to be very, very low in South India. I have not seen ONE sparrow in Bangalore in the last 9 years. Have seen small birds but not one sparrow. What a shame in a once garden city, huh?
My nesting boxes shall go up as soon as we get them. And that I am hoping is soon. There’s an sms campaign going around with people just needing to sms to get free nesting boxes couriered to them, along with instructions. Am waiting for info on which organization’s doing this, shall post when I know.
Some links that are relevant are
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngworld/article1539400.ece
Mohammed Dilawar – truly big of heart.
World Sparrow Day - the international website
My balcony has an old cracked (and pretty) pasta dish as a bird bath, plenty of edible plants and lots of shade. Am hoping we get some sparrows or at least some small birds. I see a few on and off…am going to put in some serious effort now. And if my zoom lens arrives soon (am hinting here, husband….as much as hint can be without broadsiding!), you might even see pictures as nice as some I have seen around in the blogosphere.
Have a lovely weekend, people!
Credits: All pictures are off the internet through a google search. I wish they were my images but they are not! But soon….hope reigns eternal.
Apparently its the cellphone towers and their signals whihc have driven these creatures away..
Darn! We have a big one close by that’s worrying for human health too.
Wait – why is this a problem only in South India, then?
Because in South India most of the cell towers are placed over-heads for commercial gains.
Hey, Vamsi!
Thanks for this, is this not the case in WB? Sad in any case.
The sparrows are endangered even in the north…i haven’t seen one in Delhi too. In my hometown Varanasi they still make nests in my own house , have took pictures of them.
It has something to do with pollution in the big cities as well as those high frequency radio waves too…
Tell me when you get info about the nesting boxes , i wanted to make one myself . Am searching some DIY idea that can be done without any special equipment…
Oh, man, was hoping for some immigrants! Shall post as soon as I get the info. As of now, I only have a person’s cell phone number and don’t want to blast it now. She is going to email me with the info soon.
I think now we see more pigeons, mynahs and bulbuls – and less of sparrows.
I have heard about the cell phone towers, but I wonder, because we had one in the next building, in Pune – not more than 30 feet away, but we had many sparrows there. I regularly put bajra seeds and water and had a literal party on my window sill, with more than 20-25 sparrows chirping there all day.
Where we lived in Delhi (Greater Kailash) we had some, (not as many though) sparrows, and now here in Gurgaon, again we do have some sparrows – but clearly seven sisters (warblers), bulbuls and mynahs out number the sparrows.
I would love to see your bird photos, get that lens fast. The pictures in this post are good – I have never seen sparrow eggs before!
Should have put credits up – got the pictures by googling. The day I can take a picture of a sparrow’s nest, I will be over the moon!
Good to know about the cell phone tower. There is actually an unclaimed prize in the UK for anyone figuring out why these birds are disappearing so fast.
Enjoyed reading your post. I hope you get the sparrows visiting you soon and the zoom lens to capture them
Cheers
And the nests are winging their way to me!
Thanks for visiting!
My father uses akshat (rice grains used for pooja) every day, but instead of sprinkling them on his idols he just puts them in a dish and puts it out in the balcony every day. And sparrows and crows come there in droves. In fact, if on a day he is late putting them out the birds come and try looking inside the window to check! Creating a racket.
True, must check out why they are not to be seen much here.
Remembered this post when in Mumbai, and saw all the sparrows there. I had a talk with my dad about it, and he says, yes, the sparrow population HAS gone down over the past few years, and it is not for a lack of food or nesting opportunities. So it has to be electromagnetic waves.
Darn, then the tower near will be a problem for me.
Hello all!
It’s great that you all have an interest in the wee featherballs.
Although I find it hard to imagine that the decrease in population is down because of electromagnetic fields, has anyone conclusive evidence to that fact?
We have loads of transmission towers and other electromagnetc sources here in Berlin and despite that there are still a lot of sparrows around, although nationwide there is a definite decrease, here mainly ascribed to the lack of nesting opportunities in the facades of new houses, using steel and glass a lot and mostly straight surfaces.
Would be useful to know whether other reasons cause such a rapid change , your statements are quite alarming! and would the sparrows have moved or died?
In both cases: it seems severely wrong – for the cheeky wee jesters and for us.
Anyway, I hope that things will improve again.
All we can do to try and help is by offering places to build nests, nesting material and natural food sources, grasses instead of lawns, bushes and trees to roost and hide.
Sparrows are lovely and we know less about them than about ‘fancier’ songbirds.
I like the image of the birds tapping on the window pane, drumming their feathers going ‘oy! do you think this food will be there any time soon now? got things to do, places to go, so if you wouldn’t mind and hurry up a little….’
so long
Hi, Thatsjazz!
Welcome here. And yes, it is alarming. I have since seen sparrows closer home and we live with a tower staring us in the face (that can’t be great for us either!), so maybe it is not about the radiation only. I have three houses up and food and water….so if the crows let the sparrows come, then there are lovely trees for them to use. Am waiting quite impatiently for my first sparrow sighting….fingers crossed! Love the image of the ‘cheeky wee jesters’!
In Kolkata I still see sparrows… of course in the outskirts of the city, Rajarhat.. lot of sparrows.. but feel they’ve started to disappear here too over time…
We can welcome these cuties offering fresh cooked rice, food grains and any small houses made of cardboards that we prepare for science exibitions for children… they really love to live in those…
Am still waiting, though I saw a sparrow near by. One sparrow and once!