House Sparrow Numbers In Britain Down 70% In 30 Years

[hatrack]

London - The population of house sparrows in Britain has fallen nearly 70 percent in the last 30 years as a trend for paving over gardens and removing trees has left too few insects for them to eat, the RSPB said on Thursday. The sparrow has almost completely vanished from central London and numbers are well down in cities like Bristol and Edinburgh.

"The trend towards paving of front gardens and laying decking in the back, and the popularity of ornamental plants from other parts of the world, has made many gardens no-go areas for once-common British birds," said Will Peach, from the RSPB.

The changes mean there are too few insects in summer, leaving young house sparrows in towns and cities starving in their nests. The number of house sparrows in Britain has declined 68 percent since 1977.

An RSPB study monitored house sparrows in Leicester and surrounding villages and found that the number of birds dropped 28 percent about three years, with many chicks dying within four days of hatching. "Each pair of house sparrows must rear at least five chicks every year to stop their numbers falling," said Peach.

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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20081120125138405C942491

[pansypoo53219]

1. they can have mine.

crap birds. and the starlings too.

[kestrel91316]

2. I think the males are beautiful, but yeah, we need to trap and export the

little buggers back home........

[ElectricGrid]

3. no kidding the only thing worse than those things that the english

have given us is the beetles.

[stuntcat]

4. it's awful to me

every animal is at our mercy from now on. I love the little sparrows.