Bye bye sparrows - down by 68%

First the polar bear and now these guys? Who's next? And when are we going to realize this is a problem?

How sad. This isn't one of the species I would have expected to be in trouble. But, it looks like I was wrong. This seems to be happening more and more often unfortunately.

Same problem here in the Netherlands - these little birds used to be all over the place. Sad.

clone them!

I live in the rural Central Virginia and I have a house sparrow's nest on my porch and under the walkway to my basement. I hope my kitty sticks to stalking the chipmunks, lizards and mice and not these cute little birdies.

i have noticed a big decrease in the number of these birds in my area since i was a boy. i remember runing out in the garden as a kid n seeing 20 or 30 of them rise into the air. i have lived in the same area all of my life n i am not lucky to see 1 or 2 of these birds in an afternoon. i find it all very sad.too many magpies, a species not native to the UK, and not enough of our native birds. they are being pushed out by these aggressive invaders. i do not wish to cause any unnessary suffering for any animal, but i think there may have to be somthing done to prevent magpies from destroying our native species.

So sad.

Just another example of Mankinds' "progress" destroying Mother Earths' Balance & Beauty

Sparrows are such adorable little hellraisers. I still remember their antics back in my school days. Always chasing each other, wildly tossing themselves about in the air.

And yet I still took them for granted here. There was always just so many of the things.

Granted, this was in Texas, and not the UK, but I've come to the understanding that a cause of this is Electrical smog. Radio waves and the like, and especially Cell phones & Cellular towers.

We've already lost a good part of the songbirds here in the US. Pretty much all we have left are Mockingbirds. Just about everything out here is Grackles.

Maybe we'll figure this shit out and wake up before it's too late. Let us hope.

Has no one out there heard of bird feeders?

We have 3 outside. The sparrows, wren, chickadees, and finches had only 1 sneaky rival for food - 3 squirrels. That was easily resolved by hanging the feeders from wires.

Cost to feed 2 or 3 dozen birds per week = $3.00

So, food problem solved. Noise, air, water and ground pollution - that's another story. As to the lack of nesting places? We've got one bird house up and plan to stack 4 more. A high rise...

If you like em - feed em.

My parents said they had a Sparrow Hawk near their house that was just killing sparrows for sport. It wasn't eating them it was just killing them and leaving them lying all over the place. Maybe the hawks are partly to blame?

Not to worry as they propose to bring back a wooly mammoth so a little old gaden sparrow shoud present no problem.

We are quite lucky where we are as sparrows are fairly plentiful but I will admit over the last ten years or so they are decreasing in numbers. Tits and finches etc seem to still be in good numbers. one secret is always make sure you have plenty of feeders hung around the place its only a few pounds a week to keep them stocked

Our three dogs are always fed outside and it is quite common to see all manner of birds joining in at feeding time. The major bird sighting at present are thousands of starlings filling the air they also seem to keep common sparrows at bay

House cats roaming free endanger many birds here in the states. Check this out:
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/

Well they are alive and thriving in Weardale. They are the most common birds in our garden easily. But then again we don't live in a city.

Ive noticed that I didnt have any sparrows in my yard this summer either. Normally I have a bunch of them. Usually a few will make nests on my front porch. No cardinals this year either. Not even as many robbins as normal. Thats so sad. I live in the country. There should be a lot more birds around then there are this year. I havent had any chickadees in my yard for a few years.

I am 30 years old from British Columbia and we have a greater amount of birds than when I was young. You would almost never see hawks, owls, osprey or wild turkeys and now all are commonsight. I wonder whats happening in Britain.

Pesticides, in farming areas and on truck gardens are no help to help bird populations. (or people, or other animals)
That, along with destruction of habitat can kill off populations.
I have house finches by the dozens because I put out feed. I usually have a few sparrows, too, but the house finches are pretty agressive.
They have effectively trained my cat to stay away from their nests.

Wow, now that i think about it, i haven seen one of these in a while here in vegas.

Averymore: - My friend learned at college that once you start feeding birds, you cannot stop - because all their babies will die.
You become the food-source within the ecology of those particular birds.