It's time to make your house (sparrow) your home

Have you ever had something that you once thought was cool but starts to get boring and annoying after a while? Well that seems to be the case for people in New Jersey with house sparrows.

Bored/annoyed child

House sparrows, Passer domesticus, are a bird species that are extremely common in North and South America. The males have a brown back and a white chest, and the females typically have a light-brown back and a light-gray chest.

Male house sparrow

Female house sparrow

House sparrows may be getting on some people's nerves because of how abundant they are. According to the Cornell Chronicle, the abundance of house sparrows has created a negative impact on other species of birds because they occupy so many nesting sites. They can be found around houses, parks, and many other places. Although there are so many of them, house sparrows are not native to North America. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, house sparrows were introduced in Brooklyn, NY in 1851 from Europe, and by the 1900s, they had spread throughout North America. The reason these birds ended up in Brooklyn was actually because of some dedicated Shakespeare fans. Some people in the late 1800s thought that it was necessary that all the birds that were in Shakespeare's plays be brought to America. So that is, surprisingly, how house sparrows came to be in this country.

So why is the house sparrow so common in North America? Well you can thank the abundance of manmade structures. House sparrows tend to prefer to live in areas that are manmade, rather than in the forest or in a natural habitat. They have become accustomed to living in these places, so suburban areas and cities, naturally, are a great place for them to live.

According to the Bern Convention of 1979, a native, or indigenous species, is one that has been observed in the form of a naturally occurring and self-sustaining population in historical times. Even though the house sparrow is not considered an indigenous species, one can make the argument that it is. It has been able to sustain itself for many years by showing flexibility in where they live. Also, the fact that they are so abundant shows that if they are not yet an indigenous species, they are well on their way. 

Female house sparrow

Although house sparrows are literally everywhere and many people find them annoying, I personally like them. I think that they are very beautiful birds, and I think that if there weren't so many of them, they would be more appreciated. My one complaint about them is how jumpy they are. I spent over an hour at Rand Park trying to take a picture of a house sparrow, but every time I came even slightly close to one, it flew away. I finally got a decent picture, but boy oh boy did they make me work for it. Gotta love 'em!