Forewords
20 March 2025
"The situation of a sparrow in urban areas is dramatic. It belongs to 1 of the strongest reducing number of urban birds," says ornithologist Paweł Średziński
From the data of Tomasz Chodkiewicz, ornithologist, leader of the Polish Bird Monitoring squad from the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy “ The number of sparrows is decreasing all over the country. These data have been collected since 2000 in different environments for the sparrow. Thus, they include villages, smaller cities, and partially larger cities. In order to complement them in 2021, a second monitoring was launched under the State Environmental Monitoring, where bird counts are carried out only in large cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Four years of investigation have already shown that the situation of a sparrow in heavy urbanized areas is dramatic. It belongs to 1 of the strongest reducing urban birds.
Recent reports from Poland to the European Commission reported that there were 6.2 to 6.8 million sparrow pairs in Poland. Currently, this figure is estimated at 4.5 to 6 million pairs."
This fast and crucial decline in the number of sparrow pairs is seen in many places where I have previously watched these birds bathe in the sand or sit on a balcony railing. In my tower, sparrows nested in ass windows all year. The end of the sparrow nests came with the thermomodernization of the building. I don't see so many of these birds anymore. It's a sign that something bad is happening to the species.
Finding a sparrow investigator was not an easy task. As a species of birds considered common, it is not among the most desirable investigation facilities. It turned out that sparrows were dealt with in his doctoral thesis ornithologist Andrzej Węgrzynowicz.
“The sparrow is surely a species that stands out for attachment and dependence on humans. There is no another species of bird that would be so heavy dependent on man and at the same time, thanks to humans, has achieved specified success in colonizing fresh areas. The sparrows followed farmers, along with the spread of agricultural crops on our continent. They went to Poland with crops of cereals" - explains Węgrzynowicz.
Polish home sparrow
The sparrow is of confederate origin. It is believed that he evolved in Africa, from where he moved on, gradually expanding the area of his occurrence. In this process, its individual species developed. In Poland present there is simply a home sparrow.
My interviewer explains: “This attachment to man’s presence may have occurred in central Asia. It was a species that originally lived on the steppes. Only then began to draw closer to man.”
Farmers who began to grow grain created good feeding grounds for him, gave him access to food. At the same time, little predators were threatened by sparrows where humans were. However, this expansion did not last forever. In the 20th century, the sparrow population in Europe began to collapse.
What does a horse gotta do with a sparrow?
"The first symptoms of something bad happening to a sparrow come from the early 20th century. They were noted among others in Britain. That's where the inheritance started. Its mechanics was rather simple. Sparrows in cities benefited to a large degree from food that was associated with the presence of horses on the streets. They included horse manure or grain that was fed to these animals.
When the horses started disappearing off the streets, replaced by cars, the sparrows felt it.
In the following years, they managed to control to another food and began rebuilding their population utilizing waste. Another decline in sparrow numbers was the marked wartime. In the course of the war, the urban settlement was destroyed and with it the nesting and refuge of the sparrows. After the war they managed to rebuild the population again, including in Poland. Another decline occurred in the 1970s in Western Europe. In time, it began to include another parts of the world, including those where the sparrow was introduced by man.
In Poland, this regression began in the 1980s, which is about 10 years later than in western Europe. Since then, we have gradually lost sparrows.”
Although the number of sparrows is hard to estimate, general data show that there may be up to 247 million less of these birds in Europe than forty years ago. As Dr. Węgrzynowicz adds, there are at least respective causes of this defect.
Two sparrow populations in Poland
"It is worth noting that we have 2 sparrow populations in Poland and for both reasons the crisis is completely different. 1 settles the agricultural landscape. The second is the urban population. In the agricultural landscape, the decline in the number of sparrows is affected by a change in management. More herbicides are used, which means that there is little additional food in the form of plant seeds considered by farmers as weeds. In turn, more insecticides make little insects to feed chicks. In addition, almost everything will work out, eliminates the city, in-field screams and trees" - explains the ornithologist.
"But as far as cities are concerned, so far we have not established the causes with 100% certainty. We only have hypotheses.
It should be assumed that 1 of the problems is the issue of the warming of buildings, including those from the large plate. Thermomodernisation could so harm sparrows. force from predatory species may besides have increased. Certainly, the function of magpies and crows that have colonized cities in fresh decades should be taken into account. Unless they're hunting more adult sparrows, they might be curious in a journey that just came out of the nest. Another issue is simply a drastic simplification in access to waste that utilized to be available in open bins. present they are alternatively closed containers in which garbage is thrown in tightly clamped plastic bags" - added Dr. Węgrzynowicz.
Increasing the strength of gardening in green areas besides plays a negative role. The Ornithologist calculates: lawn haircuts, mediocre species and undifferentiated seed or the usage of chemical plant protection products.
Masurias
All this, according to the expert, makes sparrows more difficult. Even in winter, hundreds of sparrows no longer accumulate in feeding places. usually tens – if they appear. In Warsaw, the number of sparrows has fallen on average by half on investigation areas, where the number of sparrows has been estimated in fresh years. There were downs by up to 90 percent.
"Meanwhile, the sparrow is very social and colonial by nature. He likes nesting in the vicinity of birds of his species. He established nests first in bushes, later with the improvement of construction in ass and vents of buildings, creating noisy colonies. This is simply a bird that must at least have voice contact with another individual. He doesn't tolerate loneliness. He only defends his nest niche. It's like his territory, those fewer inches of nest. Earlier in Warsaw, sparrows nested very commonly in breeding boxes, erstwhile there were more of them and they did not have adequate space for nesting. Now they no longer practice this custom, due to the fact that it was a little attractive place than buildings, and it is another sign of a decline in its number," says the ornithologist.
At the same time, the relatives of sparrows, mazureks began to appear more frequently in Warsaw. He had previously performed on the outskirts of the city and then began to enter deeper into it. Dr. Węgrzynowicz emphasizes:
"This may be due to the fact that the sparrow, with its decline in numbers, made the mazurks a place. The same places in buildings present can service a different species."
But the future of the sparrow does not look optimistic. My interviewer says: “I presume we don’t have a chance to go back to what was. There is no indication that crop strength will decrease in agricultural areas and that farmers will halt utilizing herbicides and insecticides. I don't think the negative factors in cities are gone. Of course, I do not foretell that the sparrow will be completely extinct, but its population will proceed to decline.”
Details
Description - Body length: 12-14 cm. 1 of the most colorful of our birds, smaller than a sparrow. Both genders are similar. On the head contrasted black-and-white red drawing, beige ridge, black wings with a wide yellow belt through the middle, a pile of white, a black tail. The chiming is very cheerful. These birds are most conspicuous in autumn and winter as they prey in large flocks in fields and oboes.
Performance - it can most frequently be found on the outskirts of deciduous and mixed forests in parks, gardens, orchards, avenues and tree clumps. In addition to breeding, it besides feeds on open areas, even in cities, wherever it can find herbaceous plants.
The way of life - these birds are most conspicuous in autumn and winter erstwhile they prey in large flocks in fields and oboes. They feed mainly on plant seeds, the biggest delicacy are the seeds of ast and burp. In the spring and summertime during the abundance of food, they gain animal food, mainly aphids, caterpillars and tiny beetles. During the snowy winters, hazels are eager to usage their home feeders.
Propagation – the female makes 4-6 blue, spotted eggs. Sitting: 11-14 days. Young people leave the nest after 13-16 days. Its nests, the tibia builds on the last long of long branches. The nest is intricately attached with twigs, moss, hay, pieces of plant, sent with hair and down
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