House Sparrow on the verge of extinction

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom : Animalia                                                   Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves                                                                 Order: Passeriformes

Family: Passeridae                                                     Genus: Passer

Species: P.domesticus                                                

Binomial name: Passer domesticus

General Features of Passer domesticus:

Local Name: Gouriya (Hindi , Urdu ), Guora (Nepali)

Size: 14-16 cm                                                WingsSpan: 19-25cm

Weight : 26-32 g                                             Small, Stocky songbird

Bill thick – Legs Short

Chest unstreaked – Wings bars

Monogamous

Most common breeding months: March to August

The male chooses nesting site, and prefers to return to it every year.

Mortality is the highest in the 1^st year of life.

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The fluffy brown sparrows are 15 cm in length and distributed all over India up to 4000m in the Himalayas. The disappearance of sparrows has been widely reported in India. The house sparrow was ubiquitous in the city till the 1970s. From around 1976,their population started sharp decline in urban areas as well as coastal areas The house sparrow is not only among the most commonly found bird species in urban cities, but also the most loved. It is a small brown-colored bird, not bigger than a tennis ball, with black streaks on its back. The male and female are easily distinguishable, not in size but in coloration. Females and young birds are colored pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.

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It has more than 1200 bird species which over 13 percent of the world’s bird species. But unfortunately, India is the third among the countries having the largest number of rare and threatened species followed by Brazil and Indonesia. Within India, it is found throughout the country , up to the Assam Valley and lower parts of the Assam Hills.

World Sparrow Day is marked on March 20 and a number of measures to increase their numbers are encouraged on this dayIn 2012, the sparrow was adopted as the state bird of Delhi.

A preliminary forensic report has indicated that the mysterious death of more than 4,800 migratory birds at the country's largest inland water saltwater lake near Jaipur was caused by botulism, a serious and fatal illness that affects the nerves.

Image Source-Google

The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)  , a member of family Passeridae , is considered to be a relative of the weaver Finch family . The house Sparrow is 14 to 16 cm long bird is abundant in temperate climates. They survive in all temperatures from the humid coastal regions to the hot plains to the chills of Kashmir and beyond to Ladakh, up to 15,000 feet above and sea level . A sparrow survives for around 3 years in the open and up to 13 years in the captivity . They are summer visitor (March to October) to higher elevations in Baluchistan and in the Himalayas. Also they have the ability at the speed of 38.5km/hr and can even reach at the speed of 50km/hr.

Image Source-Google

The alarming decline in sparrow population indicates that the air population levels in the metropolitan cities are rising dangerously, or : since sparrows are mainly grain eaters, it could mean that the grain that the people are consuming contain higher  amount of pesticides than before. The modern infrastructure of the building are not accommodating the nests of the birds .The microwave from the towers affects the brain of the birds and they drop dead instantly.