{"id":114939,"date":"2023-08-02T04:49:07","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T10:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=114939"},"modified":"2023-08-02T04:54:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T10:54:05","slug":"male-house-sparrow-a-bird-people-love-to-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/08\/02\/male-house-sparrow-a-bird-people-love-to-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"Male House Sparrow &#8211; A Bird People Love To Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I photographed this male House Sparrow in Arkansas, I wasn&#8217;t thinking about how people love to hate this species. I was simply taking photos of a bird.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-114919 size-full\" title=\"Male House Sparrow on a driftwood perch\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844.jpg\" alt=\"Male House Sparrow on a driftwood perch, Sebastian County, Arkansas\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Male House Sparrow on a driftwood perch \u2013 Canon R7, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 1250, -0.7 EV, Canon RF 100-500mm at 500mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, there are people in North America who do hate House Sparrows. They are nonnative and cause problems, leading to the deaths of native birds. Additionally, they can crowd out native birds at feeders, nests, and birdbaths.<\/p>\n<p>But these birds didn&#8217;t ask to be here in North America, they just adapted to this continent well, extremely well in fact.<\/p>\n<p>Hate them if you must.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t hate House Sparrows. I can&#8217;t hate any birds.<\/p>\n<p>We know well that House Sparrows have had a negative impact on our native birds but they are beneficial in at least two ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Insect Control<\/strong>: House sparrows are opportunistic feeders and consume a wide variety of insects, including harmful pests such as caterpillars, aphids, and beetles. By preying on these insects, they help control pest populations, which can be beneficial to agricultural and garden settings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Seed Dispersal<\/strong>: House sparrows consume various seeds, and as they travel and forage, they inadvertently help disperse seeds from different plants. This seed dispersal can aid in the reforestation of degraded areas or contribute to the overall biodiversity of natural habitats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In their native range, these sparrows are experiencing steep declines due to various reasons, including the lack of insects and habitat destruction. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/House_Sparrow\/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Cornell University<\/span><\/a>, House Sparrows are also declining here in North America at a rate of about 3% per year, resulting in a cumulative decline of nearly 80% between 1966 and 2019.<\/p>\n<p>If these highly adaptable birds are in trouble here in North America then so are other native birds. That also means that we humans are in trouble too. It doesn&#8217;t take a genius to figure that out.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/house-sparrow-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my House Sparrow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I photographed this male House Sparrow in Arkansas, I wasn&#8217;t thinking about how people love to hate this species. I was simply taking photos of a bird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13950,27,5799,13951],"tags":[4004,4053,1996,5800,4062,6853,5801,1549,855,4195,2315,8018,13966],"class_list":["post-114939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arkansas","category-avian","category-house-sparrows","category-sebastian-county","tag-adult","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-driftwood","tag-house-sparrow","tag-male","tag-nonnative","tag-passer-domesticus","tag-perch","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-summer-3","tag-urban","tag-yard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/house-sparrow-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-4844.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-tTR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137474,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/11\/25\/white-throated-sparrow-on-a-driftwood-perch\/","url_meta":{"origin":114939,"position":0},"title":"White-throated Sparrow On A Driftwood Perch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sharing a single White-throated Sparrow photo this morning, taken two days ago in the early morning. I adore the melodic songs of these sparrows.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-throated Sparrow on driftwood, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-0829.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-0829.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-0829.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-0829.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128460,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/05\/28\/house-sparrow-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":114939,"position":1},"title":"House Sparrow Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I am sharing a few House Sparrow photos that were taken while I was staying with my dear friend, Steve Creek, in Arkansas. The photos were taken from his deck.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male House Sparrow perched on a bluebird nest box, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/house-sparrow-adult-male-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-7648.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/house-sparrow-adult-male-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-7648.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/house-sparrow-adult-male-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-7648.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/house-sparrow-adult-male-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-7648.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137829,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/12\/14\/late-autumn-white-throated-sparrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":114939,"position":2},"title":"Late Autumn White-throated Sparrow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm super excited to share autumn White-throated Sparrow photos because they are sparrows I only found one time in Utah while living in the Western U.S.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arkansas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White-throated Sparrow on a driftwood perch, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-perch-mia-mpcherson-7743.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-perch-mia-mpcherson-7743.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-perch-mia-mpcherson-7743.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/white-throated-sparrow-driftwood-perch-mia-mpcherson-7743.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":117865,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/06\/house-sparrow-on-the-rocks\/","url_meta":{"origin":114939,"position":3},"title":"House Sparrow On The Rocks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the last birds I photographed on my recent trip to Bear River MBR was this male House Sparrow, perched on a lichen-covered rock south of the Bear River.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male House Sparrow on the rocks, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/house-sparrow-on-the-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6740.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/house-sparrow-on-the-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6740.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/house-sparrow-on-the-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6740.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/house-sparrow-on-the-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6740.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46178,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/04\/13\/mixture-of-spring-birds-at-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":114939,"position":4},"title":"Mixture of Spring Birds at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I was so happy to photograph this mixture of spring birds at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge that I had a hard time picking out which birds and which photos to share.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Pipits&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Pipits","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/mimids\/american-pipits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Clark's Grebe adult swimming on the Bear River, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-river-mia-mcpherson-6561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-river-mia-mcpherson-6561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-river-mia-mcpherson-6561.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-river-mia-mcpherson-6561.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110201,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/02\/13\/perky-song-sparrow-on-a-greasewood-perch\/","url_meta":{"origin":114939,"position":5},"title":"Perky Song Sparrow On A Greasewood Perch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday I had a few seconds to photograph a perky Song Sparrow perched on a greasewood at Farmington Bay WMA just before I started to head towards home.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perky Song Sparrow on a greasewood, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/song-sparrow-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-2890.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/song-sparrow-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-2890.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/song-sparrow-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-2890.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/song-sparrow-greasewood-mia-mcpherson-2890.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}