Citizen scientists add data on clever sparrows

In June, I wrote about clever sparrows stealing sugar sachets from cafes in Auckland and Hamilton, and asked readers if they could report on other sparrows acting smartly. More than 30 readers have responded, from Whanga¯ rei to Dunedin.

Seven ‘‘citizen scientists’’ from Tauranga to Christchurch saw sparrows buzzing electronic sensors to open glass automatic doors to supermarkets and bus shelters.

A Nelson reader sent me a wonderful video of a bird triggering the door to enter and leave a cafe there. Previously, the ornithological literature featured only half a dozen New Zealand sparrows triggering these doors. Now we have doubled the record.

One reader wrote about sparrows perching under cars to escape heavy rain. Three more readers wrote about sparrows systematically searching under car bonnets to find dead insects trapped on radiators.

A colleague says that the sparrows at Picton ignore local cars but systematically search cars on the wharf, as many have travelled at high speed over long distances and collected plenty of insects. In Timaru, clever sparrows read the traffic lights, waiting until a red light stops traffic before hopping under the cars to look for insects, then flying off as the lights turn green. Some Wellington sparrows concentrate on parked motorbikes.

One reader tells me that his sparrows eat any floury substance but not spaghetti. He suggests that they may mistake the spaghetti for small snakes. A Christchurch reader tells me that his sparrows eat every kind of potato, whether boiled, mashed, baked, or as chips, but they will not touch KFC potato chips.

A Picton reader reports sparrows flying 80 metres out to the arriving Cook Straight ferries to feed on the crumb-littered decks.

I’m told that clever sparrows impressed Richard Henry, who lived on a remote island in Dusky Sound in 1909. To his amazement the sparrows ate untreated wheat but never touched wheat he had poisoned with strychnine, though it looked exactly the same. Nine readers reported seeing sparrows steal sugar sachets from cafe tables, but most surprising was an account of Nelson pukeko climbing on tables to perform the same trick.

In Timaru, clever sparrows read the traffic lights, waiting until a red light stops traffic before hopping under the cars to look for insects.