TREE SPARROW FACTS

Slightly smaller than the familiar House Sparrow, the Tree Sparrow is best recognised by its chestnut head and white cheeks. The sexes are identical.

Tree Sparrow populations have long been know to be cyclic, with numbers reaching a peak and then crashing. In the UK, a decline of 93% was noted on farmland between 1968 and 1999, and there were similar declines across western and north-western Europe during the 1990s, resulting in the species being entered onto the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern.

They will come readily to feeders, and are attracted by husked black sunflowers. They have also shown a liking for red millet.

They nest most successfully in loose colonies, and will adopt suitable nest boxes.

If conditions are right they are multi-brooded, producing up to four broods of four or five chicks in a season.

They are a favourite prey of the Sparrowhawk, and their peak period of abundance in the UK in the 1960s coincided with the time when Sparrowhawk numbers were much reduced by pesticide poisoning.