Where have all the Sparrows Gone?

The house sparrow, at once a common sight in and around any urban household, is now hardly seen. If you grew up in Bangalore during the Eighties and Nineties, when it still maintained its reputation as the Garden City of India, you would be hard-pressed to move through a residential area without encountering the sight of the little bird hopping and flying among the trees, or the melodious sound of its chirps and twitters. Sparrows were as commonplace a sight as the Rock Pigeon and could be spotted nesting in crevices among buildings and feeding on insects in lawns and backyards. However, the cities in India have seen a decline in sparrow population over the years. Where have all the sparrows gone?

Sparrows are ubiquitous throughout the world, found in most countries. They belong to an order of birds known as Passerines, which includes more than half of all bird species and is distinguished by the arrangement of their toes: three facing forward and one facing backward, which facilitates perching. The house sparrow, having originated in the middle east, through its close relationship with humans spread throughout Europe and Asia during agricultural times, and then the Americas during industrialization through the deliberate introduction or by being dispersed through ships. Due to this, House Sparrows are some of the animals most well adapted to living along with humans and thus closely associated with several cultures around the world. It is also known to be capable of adapting to a variety of environmental conditions and has a vigorous immune response. Due to this, along with its capability to rapidly multiply and its wide range of habitat, its conservation is widely disregarded as a matter of concern. While the decline in urban population does not directly correspond to a decline in the overall population, indicating that sparrows are widely migrating away from urban centers towards rural areas, there has also been an overall decline in the population of these birds, especially in India. 

The house sparrow has widely been perceived as a pest by agricultural communities due to its tendency to spread the disease to humans and domestic animals, as well as its consumption of agricultural produce. It is, however, an opportunistic feeder and is known to feed on several insects that are pests to humans. While one theory had been proposed that cell phone tower radiation interferes with its ability to navigate, there has not been enough research to substantiate this claim. Scientists are inclined to believe that there are two major factors for their decline in population and migration away from urban centers. Firstly, there is a decrease in nesting and roosting sites due to urbanization, which has resulted in a changing cityscape with an increase in skyscrapers and high-rise buildings. Secondly, there is a decline in insect populations, which are a critical part of the diet of sparrow chicks, due to a decrease in overall greenery and farmlands and the use of pesticides in farmlands. There is a multitude of other factors such as increasing temperatures and decreasing water sources that also affect the population of the house sparrow in cities.

Sparrows have always symbolized the coexistence of nature along with human civilization and are the representation of wildlife growing and adapting to survive in a world increasingly defined by human activity. Our rampant exploitation of natural resources is having a visible impact on our environment. While many people may not miss the pestilent behavior of these impish birds, the vanishing flight of the sparrows points to a larger picture that indicates a worrying trend of wildlife being increasingly unable to cohabit with humans.  This signals a loss of biodiversity in our future and is a warning to only the most immediate consequences we will face if we continue down the path we currently are on.