House Sparrows Declining In Southeast England (House Sparrows?!?!)

[hatrack]

LONDON, England — "The ordinary house sparrow is disappearing from gardens and parks throughout Britain, and government officials met Friday to discuss ways of curbing the bird's decline.

The number of house sparrows has dropped from 12 million pairs to fewer than 7 million pairs over the last 30 years, according to researchers. House sparrows are measured in breeding pairs because that provides a steady baseline for scientists, rather than the fluctuations of population during the breeding season.

The worst decline is in the southeast of England. The species is thriving in Scotland and Wales."

EDIT

A drop in the adult survival rate, a decline in food sources, and poorer breeding success in suburban habitats in southeast England are blamed for the overall decline in sparrow numbers. About 60 percent of the species lives in towns and villages. Possible factors of urban decline are air pollution and domestic cats. House sparrows feed and breed near people, eating seeds and scraps, and nesting in holes and crevices in buildings as well as trees and garden shrubbery."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-02-24/s_13399.asp

[brokensymmetry]

1. Sparrows as canaries...

as in coal mines...

[amazona]

2. the house sparrow is now red-listed in England

Red-listed = Endangered Species list. Once the symbol of the Cockney, they say that it is so rare in London that most young Londoners today have never seen one.

As they don't know the cause of this precipitous decline, they don't know how to reverse it.

We have plenty of house/feral cats and heroic levels of air pollution in Louisiana and Texas, yet the house sparrow thrives over here. The birders I've talked with agree that the cause of the disappearance of the House Sparrow from England is a total mystery.

[Spentastic]

3. Hmm

Population density may cover that disparity. We have lots and lots of cats. Horrible little murdering machines that they are.