Only during the breeding season do House Sparrows Passer domesticus visit our Henlow
garden in numbers. At this time of year family parties appear, usually
comprising one adult, either male or female, and their brood. This year the first
family, a female with three young was first noted on 14 June 2012, a couple of
weeks later than in previous years. Subsequently, numbers have risen to a
maximum of three males, three females and 12 young, presumed to be three broods
of four chicks. At first the fledglings hide in the shrubbery only noisily
appearing with wings quivering when the parent approaches with food, but perch
more in the open as they become bolder.
On 14 June 2012 a female House Sparrow flew to our
vegetable patch rather than the seed feeders and pecked at the leaves of
beetroot. I assumed she had been picking an insect from the leaf. That evening
while watering the garden, I checked the beetroot. I could find no insects on
any of the beetroot leaves but small pieces had been torn from the leaves on
one plant. The following day, I watched more carefully, and a female House
Sparrow was seen to nip out pieces of beetroot leaf and, apparently eat them.
Over the following four days, the leaves were stripped from this beetroot plant.
The female House Sparrow fed at least one of the fledglings immediately after
nipping out a piece of leaf and later the young birds were also seen feeding on
the beetroot leaves. I could not tell if only one female and brood were
involved. No males were recorded feeding on the beetroot leaves. Only one plant
in the row of beetroots was attacked this severely although the leaves of other
plants had been nibbled.
BWP (Cramp & Perrins 1994) records that House
Sparrow regularly attack flowers and green leaves, but is not certain these are
eaten.
Cramp, S & C.M.Perrins (eds) (1994). The Birds of
the Western Palearctic Vol VIII.
Originally published in The Hobby 124: 11
