Tree Sparrow
Passer montanus
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Distribution Britain 1,346 (-19.6%) Ireland 130 (+6.6%)
Numbers breeding: Britain 110,000 Ireland 9,000 European status: 15,000,000 (1% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: very severely declining (-87% CBC){-87%} How likely are you to record it? 277 squares (62.0%) Ranked 75 [64=] |
Without doubt there have been problems in finding out just what was happening to Tree Sparrow populations a hundred years ago since not everyone reporting on birds realised there were two species of sparrow. However it seems clear that Tree Sparrows were expanding and were found over most of England (not Devon and Cornwall), in Wales (not the West), thinly round coastal Scotland, in the Isle of Man and in Ireland only in Wicklow. The birds continued to increase and spread for about 30 years and several coastal, and a few inland, colonies were established in Ireland. The birds then declined and went missing from many areas. Some 40 years ago they started to increase again and were probably as common as they ever were during the first Breeding Atlas. By the second Atlas the most recent decline had started with the birds lost from many areas from Sussex to South and West Wales and, patchily, from northern England and southern Scotland. In Ireland, there were slight net gains. Tree Sparrows are very fickle and large colonies may be deserted in a very few years. The lack of insects for the nestlings in the modern agricultural landscape is a likely cause. The CBC index dropped by a staggering 87% in the 25 years (1972-96) and mostly in the final 20 years. This is now a rare bird in many areas and looks set to become even rarer.
Perry, K.W. & Day, K.R. 1997 Irish Birds: 6, 29-34.
UKBAP MAFF RSPB.
The following Bird On! sketch is available:
Tree Sparrow
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead