House Sparrows - Boulder & metro area

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Hugh Kingery

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Apr 9, 2018, 1:48:40 PM4/9/18
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Denver Audubon just received a call from a woman in Lafayette with a unique subject: where have the House Sparrows gone?

She says she used to have as many as 80, but now she sees only a pair or two, sproadically. They check out her yard and continue on somewhere else. Have any of you experienced a diminishing numbers of House Sparrows?


Hugh Kingery

Joe Roller

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Apr 9, 2018, 1:54:05 PM4/9/18
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House Sparrow decline has been well-studied in England and India,
and seems to be patchy, but world-wide.
Here is a way to find relevant articles on the web:

type in key words:
house sparrow population decline

eBird is a great data base for studying this, in the US and all over, 
so don't do what I used to do and put "x" in the number box for those
charming Weavers, put a number.

Joe Roller, Denver

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Patrick O'Driscoll

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Apr 9, 2018, 1:54:43 PM4/9/18
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Since last fall and through winter, I averaged 25-30 in/around my back yard in east-central Denver (off East Colfax). The past few weeks, the number is more like 10-12. I had assumed maybe some natural reason, like the rest going off to make nests and have babies elsewhere.

Patrick O'Driscoll
Denver



On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 11:48 AM, 'Hugh Kingery' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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Jean Stevenson

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Apr 9, 2018, 2:01:16 PM4/9/18
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Yes, in southeast Aurora, over the years, we have definitely noticed fewer house sparrows.  For several years house finches have dominated with lots of other interesting species occurring , more nuthatches, more goldfinches, occasional bushtits, solitaires and this year even red crossbills.

Jean Stevenson, Arapahoe County, east of Quincy Reservoir

 

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Todd Deininger

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Apr 9, 2018, 2:06:21 PM4/9/18
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In Longmont I noticed a big decline after the rains and flood of Sep 2013. 

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Nicholas Komar

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Apr 9, 2018, 3:03:43 PM4/9/18
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The answer is that they have dispersed from their winter flocks for breeding.  This is an annual phenomenon. 

Best,

Nick Komar
Fort Collins CO
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Jean Stevenson

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Apr 9, 2018, 4:06:15 PM4/9/18
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I don’t know about the woman in Lafayette, But the lack of house sparrows I reported in southeast Aurora is an observation covering the entire year.  Jean Stevenson

 

=J=

Richard Trinkner

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Apr 9, 2018, 6:21:36 PM4/9/18
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Some personal House Sparrow data:

Between 1996 and 2015, House Sparrows appear on 30.16% of my Colorado checklists. 

Between 2015 and 2018, they appear on only 13.44% of my Colorado checklists.

They used to be very common bird for my backyard feeders. Between 1996 and 2015, House Sparrows were on 58.21% of my backyard checklists. So far in 2018, I haven't had a single House Sparrow.  Not one.  I've completed 26 checklists for my yard this year: not a single House Sparrow.

In Boulder, House Sparrows seem to be hanging on in small numbers in very urban areas. I walk to work most mornings in central Boulder. I used to nearly trip on House Sparrows. I still see them often (72% of my morning walk checklists), but now I have to listen carefully for their call and I generally only get a small handful of individuals.

On the center-north Boulder CBC route on which I counted last December, we only found sparrows in only two locations, whereas in past years they were extremely common.


I've also read that they may be particularly susceptible to cell phone tower radiation, and that their bug food source may be susceptible to such radiation as well.

Cheers,

Richard Trinkner
Boulder



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Diana Beatty

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Apr 12, 2018, 10:26:11 AM4/12/18
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For what it is worth,

I just did a regression analysis of House Sparrow numbers reported on the Colorado Springs CBC since 1950 to present.  There is no evidence of a decline in numbers on the CBC.  

Diana Beatty
Colorado Springs, CO


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Paul Barchilon

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Apr 13, 2018, 8:54:20 AM4/13/18
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I haven't noticed any decline at my home in Boulder, they still pack my feeders year round. My feederwatch counts seem the same.

With all that is going on with climate change, I sometimes fear we will be left with nothing but house sparrows and rock pigeons. They are certainly adapted to living around people!

Paul Barchilon,
Boulder

kalistongue

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Apr 13, 2018, 10:27:23 AM4/13/18
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Hello,

I have also noticed less House Sparrows visiting my feeders/yard. I am used to seeing groups of 10-20 blowing through my yard for a few days, then disappearing, but then returning soon. I have lots of lilac bushes where they like to congregate. I think I first noticed their absence last fall. Since then I only get 1-2 at a time, and they don't stay around long.

Visits from chickadees and House Finches have stayed about the same, while visits from Bushtits and Red-breasted Nuthatches have increased.

I am in Englewood (Arapahoe County) near Broadway and Dartmouth.

Crystal Wilson

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Apr 13, 2018, 11:06:55 AM4/13/18
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In The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy, Michael McCarthy writes eloquently about the near-extinction of house sparrows in London, England. He examines several explanations and adds the perspective of possibly more geographically restricted habitats for sparrows compared with other urban birds affected by the same factors. As a result, these other species would be better able to replenish diminished populations by influx from elsewhere, whereas sparrows would experience very localized extinction.  If true, averages numbers over large areas could obscure significant differences from place to place at lower levels of aggregation.


On Monday, April 9, 2018 at 4:21:36 PM UTC-6, Richard Trinkner wrote:
Some personal House Sparrow data:

Between 1996 and 2015, House Sparrows appear on 30.16% of my Colorado checklists. 

Between 2015 and 2018, they appear on only 13.44% of my Colorado checklists.

They used to be very common bird for my backyard feeders. Between 1996 and 2015, House Sparrows were on 58.21% of my backyard checklists. So far in 2018, I haven't had a single House Sparrow.  Not one.  I've completed 26 checklists for my yard this year: not a single House Sparrow.

In Boulder, House Sparrows seem to be hanging on in small numbers in very urban areas. I walk to work most mornings in central Boulder. I used to nearly trip on House Sparrows. I still see them often (72% of my morning walk checklists), but now I have to listen carefully for their call and I generally only get a small handful of individuals.

On the center-north Boulder CBC route on which I counted last December, we only found sparrows in only two locations, whereas in past years they were extremely common.


I've also read that they may be particularly susceptible to cell phone tower radiation, and that their bug food source may be susceptible to such radiation as well.

Cheers,

Richard Trinkner
Boulder


On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 11:48 AM, 'Hugh Kingery' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Denver Audubon just received a call from a woman in Lafayette with a unique subject: where have the House Sparrows gone?

She says she used to have as many as 80, but now she sees only a pair or two, sproadically. They check out her yard and continue on somewhere else. Have any of you experienced a diminishing numbers of House Sparrows?


Hugh Kingery

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wwi...@gmail.com

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Apr 13, 2018, 11:13:18 AM4/13/18
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The book:

The moth snowstorm: nature and joyMichael McCarthy. Publ. by John Murray (2015).


Willem van Vliet--

Boulder


On Monday, April 9, 2018 at 4:21:36 PM UTC-6, Richard Trinkner wrote:
Some personal House Sparrow data:

Between 1996 and 2015, House Sparrows appear on 30.16% of my Colorado checklists. 

Between 2015 and 2018, they appear on only 13.44% of my Colorado checklists.

They used to be very common bird for my backyard feeders. Between 1996 and 2015, House Sparrows were on 58.21% of my backyard checklists. So far in 2018, I haven't had a single House Sparrow.  Not one.  I've completed 26 checklists for my yard this year: not a single House Sparrow.

In Boulder, House Sparrows seem to be hanging on in small numbers in very urban areas. I walk to work most mornings in central Boulder. I used to nearly trip on House Sparrows. I still see them often (72% of my morning walk checklists), but now I have to listen carefully for their call and I generally only get a small handful of individuals.

On the center-north Boulder CBC route on which I counted last December, we only found sparrows in only two locations, whereas in past years they were extremely common.


I've also read that they may be particularly susceptible to cell phone tower radiation, and that their bug food source may be susceptible to such radiation as well.

Cheers,

Richard Trinkner
Boulder


On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 11:48 AM, 'Hugh Kingery' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Denver Audubon just received a call from a woman in Lafayette with a unique subject: where have the House Sparrows gone?

She says she used to have as many as 80, but now she sees only a pair or two, sproadically. They check out her yard and continue on somewhere else. Have any of you experienced a diminishing numbers of House Sparrows?


Hugh Kingery

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Jared Del Rosso

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Apr 15, 2018, 6:35:15 AM4/15/18
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I'm late to this discussion, but here's some more impressions of this bird in westish Arapahoe Co....


In early-March 2016, I moved to west Centennial (Arapahoe) from the Cap Hill neighborhood of Denver. Immediately, I was struck by the relative absence of House Sparrows.

 

In Denver, they seemed the default small bird around neighborhoods, with House Finches a close second. This was my impression, at least; I haven’t looked at checklists to support it, however. At Denver Botanic Gardens, where I spent most of my birding time, House Sparrows seemed slightly scarcer and around in small numbers than House Finches.

 

In Centennial, I was thrilled that, initially, I didn’t see House Sparrows in my yard. About two weeks after moving in, I saw my first. I see them sporadically around my yard – though certainly more often than I report them. But they’re by no means a daily sight.

 

Around Centennial, I regularly see a flock of House Sparrows at deKoevend Park, where there’s a particular bush, near a residential feeder, that’s usually filled with 15-20 House Sparrows. A few are sometimes near the Goodson Recreation Center and the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Big Dry Creek behind the Rec Center’s Parking lot. A pair is often at the top of the hill beyond that pedestrian bridge.

 

In around 150 trips or so to Marjorie Perry Nature Preserve, I’ve never seen a House Sparrow. I’m not the only one: there are only two eBird reports of this bird at the preserve and my understanding is that those reports are of birds in the residential neighborhood surrounding the preserve, not the preserve itself.

 

House Sparrows are around west Centennial. I might get some along the Big Dry Creek Trail or Willow Springs Open Space. But if I were doing a “big day” in my home birding circle, I could miss them unless I made a special trip to that single bush in deKoevend.

 

More compelling than my impressions, though, is what eBird data says. Assuming I haven’t made any mistakes in compiling this data (though I may have…don’t quote me on this), here’s eleven years of eBird data for Arapahoe County, summarized so as to show the percent of all checklists that include House Sparrows and the average count of House Sparrows on those checklists that include the bird. This is 25,000+ checklists worth of data.

 

The table shows that, over the past ten years, House Sparrows were reported most frequently about five years ago. But, when seen, they seemed to show in higher numbers a decade ago. This year, House Sparrows are reported less frequently than at any point over the past decade (though perhaps these numbers increase as spring, summer, and fall birding come on?). And relatively few are seen when the bird is in fact reported.

 

Keep this in mind: I just summed and averaged numbers. A more careful analysis would take into account all sorts of other things – effort, distance covered, the fact that eBird use has changed dramatically over time, etc. And this is not nearly as sophisticated an analysis as Doug Eddy did for Colorado Springs with the CBC data.

 

HOSP

Percent of Checklists that Include HOSP

Average Count (When Present)

2008

11.2

8.9

2009

15.7

9.2

2010

12.1

7.3

2011

16.4

5.9

2012

15.2

7.2

2013

20.4

6.8

2014

18.7

5.3

2015

16.8

6.2

2016

12.8

5.4

2017

13.2

5.3

2018

8.4

4.9

 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

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