"The sparrows are a shuffling, chirruping shadow in the bushes, a static of anticipation. They are waiting for food, calling for it. They have not forgotten what the poet Emily Dickinson describes, in her poem Victory Comes Late, as God keeps his oath to sparrows, / Who of little love / Know how to starve! However, sparrows do seem to live in a much more vivid and emotional society than as mere victims of an indifferent nature that is economical at the expense of compassion."
"When the whole host, quarrel or ubiquity move in, there must be over 30 birds. The energy of their performance is contagious. Moving through a home range of gardens, this clan know each other intimately. Feeding together, they have hair-trigger reactions. The slightest disturbance sends them all thrumming for cover at the speed of thought that looks telepathic more fun than panic. Sparrow culture involves complex behaviours with other birds in this community of place: blue tits, robins, jackdaws, collared doves, blackbirds, wood pigeons and wrens."
Sparrows gather at a small backyard feeding station in a shuffling, chirruping mass that conveys anticipation and urgent calling for food. Individual sparrows edge in to explore and to play within subtly altered spaces, and larger groups of thirty or more display contagious energy and intimate social knowledge across neighboring gardens. Feeding together produces hair-trigger group reactions and rapid retreats at the slightest disturbance. Sparrow interactions extend to a community of other garden birds, and local ritual practices have evolved to offer sanctuary to vulnerable species such as wrens, while conservation concern marks sparrows as threatened on the red list.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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