Comments on: NBB’s Guide to the Birds You Saw

By: katiemur

katiemur — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:54:53 +0000

Well, when Zoom munched down a fledgeling sparrow one day, the baby’s mom was none too pleased and spent a good hour scolding Zoom. It mustn’t have tasted too good, as she stopped eating after having gagged down its poor head; but, once the head was off, it was no good as a baby bird. All of zoom’s guilty looks – and there were rather a lot – couldn’t shut up the poor mother bird…

I actually quite like sparrows, but I call them “street urchins”; they are often the only sign of life on the pavements of this old city, so they’re nice to see, playing on the pavement or scrounging at the market.

By: Abbs

Abbs — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:19:30 +0000

Excellent post NNB! Alas European Starlings, another invader thanks to the bard lovers.
Well done! Thanks again.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:50:19 +0000

I totally agree about house sparrows, and I’m always trying to educate people about them as invasive species. It’s important to explain that the reason that HOSP is a problem is because it evolved elsewhere and puts our native species at a disadvantage, just like many other invasive plant and animal species. They are completely unrelated to our native sparrows, which evolved here along with other species and exist in harmony with them. It’s not a sparrow issue – it’s an invasive species issue.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:47:43 +0000

House sparrows ARE smart and evil. They use to bamboozle our laborador, leaving her sniffing behind a cedar tree so they could raid the feeder in peace!

By: Peg

Peg — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:13:08 +0000

This was such fun to read, thank you NBB for your guilt-free perspective.!

By: pamela

pamela — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:48:05 +0000

Thank you for a very funny post…ended a stressful day on a happy note.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:45:08 +0000

NBB; thank you so much for easing my guilt. I’m happy to report that we had a 30 foot cypress in front of our house; each year the noise was unbearable; it was a rookery for the little monsters; as was the entire line of cypress that surround my neighbors house (there are at least 40 of them; they stand 25 to 30 feet tall like giant spikes of death).

Within a couple years after we moved in; my THEN outdoor cat Ms. Stella O’Houligan personally took it upon herself to aid the Bluebird society by ridding the yard of any house sparrows that came within 7 feet (vertically) of our yard. No kidding! All our cats are indoor now and at the feeder in the back (my neighbors used to razz me that our feeders should have been called ‘bait’) bright yellow birds and only in summer (except for the giant blue one that came in of it’s own accord and promptly got stuck. I had to chase it round the house till I caught it (before Ms. O’Houligan did) and for my services it bit me severely which would have been ok on the hand; but as I had run out of the shower to rescue it and was using my towel to net it…well. nevermind…

I look much forward to your further postings.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:16:36 +0000

Bill, thank you for such a great laugh! I’m now imagining a sliding scale chart of 0 – 100% sparrow-ness to identify birds. Forget the dichotomous key!

And thank you for explaining why you were Non-Birding Bill. Inquiring minds…

By: Lucy Jefferson

Lucy Jefferson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:41:25 +0000

Oh, c’mon people. They aren’t that hard to tell apart. Different sparrows have different shapes, act differently, and sound very different. And it’s amusing to wow(or bore) the uninformed with the ability to tell them apart, though obviously, some of you live in places that they ARE all english sparrows which makes the job of learning differences quite a bit harder.

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:09:18 +0000

And there I was, wondering whether some of the brown birds who come and poop on my deck rail might actually be different types of sparrow. But no longer! Screw ‘em.