Intensive Farming Blamed for Killing House-sparrows

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Saturday, 09 February 2002

The severe decline of the house-sparrow in towns and cities has spread to the countryside, researchers have shown in a study that also found intensive farming was killing the rural populations.

A survey of more than 200 farms in southern England by scientists at Oxford University found that between 10 and 20 per cent have lost their house-sparrows since 1980. A substantial proportion of other farms in the postal survey – between 39 per cent and 45 per cent – had experienced a significant fall in reported sightings over the same period.

David Hole, of Oxford's Farmland Bird Group at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, said a change in farming practices appeared to be the chief cause of the decline.

One of the four house-sparrow populations, where detailed scientific records date back 30 years, suffered an 80 per cent decline in numbers, from 150 breeding individual in 1971 to just 35 in 2000.

When the scientists fed this population during the winter they found numbers increased significantly over the following breeding season, showing food supply in the coldest part of the year was the principal factor limiting a growth in numbers.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which helped to fund the study, said the findings demonstrated the importance of helping house-sparrows even if people lived in rural areas.

"There are three things they can do. They can provide nesting sites, they can provide seed all year round and they can leave untidy patches in their gardens so house-sparrows can find their own food," he said.

Source: Steve Connor, Science Editor, The Independent 29 Aug 02