House sparrows live where we do

The house sparrow's Latin name is Passer domesticus. Passer is Latin for sparrow. Domesticus is you in your house and yard — domesticated.

If you can't find people at a particular location you're unlikely to find a house sparrow, either. They are seriously domesticated.

House sparrows are common, not colorful, sing a non-song, and generally are ignored by serious birders. They are, however, very interesting creatures.

The house sparrow song is worthy of early mention. The bird says/sings cheep. That's it, that's the song, first verse, last verse, melody, everything. It is a bird song you can learn and probably sing.

Approximately 5,000 research papers have been published with these little birds as study species. They're popular study subjects because of accessibility and quantity. If a house sparrow is likely to help answer the research question being asked, being numerous and convenient is a plus. Many bird research projects follow the same path.

The passer family of birds is large in species and total numbers. There are 28 species worldwide, accounting for billions of birds.

BirdLife International, a European charitable organization, in 2015 gave a "very preliminary estimate" of total global population of house sparrows at somewhere between 896 million and 1.3 billion. Other estimates range from 520 million to 1.6 billion.

There is no question, however, about their distribution: everywhere except Antarctica.

House sparrows stir mixed emotions. They compete ferociously for nesting cavities. This puts them in conflict with native bird species, an issue for some birders.

Then, there are city dwellers who love house sparrows because they often are the only bird species at feeders or obvious in the neighborhood.

The Royal Society for Open Science, an English organization, has said, "The chattering balls of feathers bring a little bit of forest magic to city life." Many people who feed birds would agree. Cheep cheep!

House sparrows belong to an old world sparrow family. Our native sparrows, white-throats and song and chipping, for example, are new world sparrows.

House sparrows can be found in California's Death Valley, other passer species on Asian mountain peaks topping 13,000 feet. Most of these species are gregarious and will form large flocks.

In England there are records, or stories at least, of house sparrows breeding in coal mines, as deep as 2,000 feet. We assume they shared miners' lunches. One pair is said to have hatched three young that soon died.

In Minnesota the periodic breeding bird atlas, a census of sorts, calls the bird a common, regular, permanent resident here. Population numbers fall in the "no concern" category.

House sparrows came to this country in cages opened upon arrival in New York City in 1852. Another passer family member, the Eurasian tree sparrow, was introduced in St. Louis a few years later.

That bird has spread no farther than Burlington, Iowa, thought to have made a Mississippi River journey(s) aboard a grain barge.

Sparrows are ground foragers, feeding primarily on grains. They love farms and barns and grain elevators. They also readily eat waste foods.

In May 2021 the BBC website listed the house sparrow as the world's most abundant bird, using the 1.6 billion figure. Second was the European starling at 1.3 billion, followed by the ring-billed gull, 1.2 billion, and barn swallow, 1.1 billion.

Minnesota has populations of all four.

Lifelong birder Jim Williams can be reached at woodduck38@gmail.com.

House sparrow fun facts