House Sparrows : Missing in sky

Probably long time back or most of you would have almost forgotten that this little one existed once upon a time or at the most very rarely some you would have sighted it.

When I was kid , this birds used to fly in thousand in the sky. It used to be a lovely sight to watch them zoom in the sky hundreds of them together. They used to make nest in homes , feed upon the left over grains that our grannies and moms clean in the porticos and backyards.. All that are history now.

They have considerably declined now especially in cities.  Its very rare now to spot them in cities and big towns. There are many explanation given for their sudden decline.

• Big city yet less livable space :  As the cities become concrete jungle , the sparrows are deprived of the nesting grounds. There are very few thatched roofs and the high rise buildings are not the likings of this lil ones.
• Food, Food everywhere but lil’ to eat: Understanding the food pattern of sparrows gives us an idea for the disappearance of the sparrows in our city sky. Worms and insects form the diet for the baby sparrows. One must be wondering with so much of garbage in cities , cities should be a buffet for the sparrows. Surprisingly , its not the case. Research have shown sparrows have hard time to feed their babies in cities. Reason ? Millions of illuminated light sources that invite and kill the flies and insects , which are the stable diet of the birdies ! Apart from this , sparrows belong to the domestic bird groups , means cohabit with humans. More and more packaged pulses, cereals etc across the counter in department store sounds alarm bell for the sparrow world ! Reason ? Less of spill overs for them to feed upon.
  
• Towers in the sky:  There is a strong possibility and truth in the fact that the thousands of mobile towers and other electronic towers that dot our cityscape have effectively chased away the sparrows from our view. The radiation or the electric field have proved to be a nightmare for them and pushed them back to other safer pastures.

So combination of all the above facts have pushed our sparrows from our sky . This is a small instance of how our ecological balance is been abused knowingly , unknowingly , willingly or unwillingly but the long term implication are yet to be felt … What is in a sparrow ? one may ask but a little birdie is a symbolical of a larger picture yet to come ….