Say hello to the very sociable house sparrow

House sparrows drive me crazy. They crowd around bird feeders, suet cakes and bark butter while forcing birds like chickadees to wait in line to get nourishment.

When I place mealworms in feeding trays for nesting bluebirds, who gets there first but house sparrows. And one of the bluebird nest boxes invariably gets taken over by a pair of nesting house sparrows before a male bluebird can sing “chur-alee.”

Did I say house sparrows vie with purple martins for nesting compartments?

The minute after you clear out a house sparrow nest, you’ll find it being rapidly rebuilt. The birds are unstoppable.

And yet …

When you pay close attention to house sparrows, you discover that the birds are amazingly sociable and vigorous. As bird parents, they’re as dutiful as other songbirds, and they stick together for life.

Both sexes build the nest, with males initiating construction. Their nest is a woven cup or squishedup globe made from dry grasses, twigs, strings and other stray items. When built inside a bluebird box, the nest may line the walls. If in a tree, the nest may have a globular shape with a side entrance.

Whereas the female is grayish brown with a pale eyebrow and dark streaks on her back, the male is a looker. He’s decked out with a gray crown, a coppery-colored nape, a black throat and breast, and a pale-white face.

One day, I thought I saw a white-breasted nuthatch feeding on bark butter, only to realize it was a house sparrow. A nuthatch’s white breast extends to its face, making it appear almost like the pale white face of a breeding male house sparrow.

House sparrows did not ask to be in North America. They were imported to New York City from England in the early 1850s, allegedly to control inchworms munching on trees in Central Park. The birds were then taken to other states to help farmers control insects. They were brought to Galveston in 1869.

But farmers were in for a big surprise. House sparrows preferred barnyard seeds and grains over insects. City dwellers were surprised when house sparrows feasted on waste foods in streets and insects buzzing around homes.

Where people dwelt, house sparrows dwelt, and now they dwell throughout the Americas.

We gotta admire their adaptability. But they still drive me crazy.

Photos by Kathy Adams Clark / Contributor Male house sparrows are handsome, even though they do drive us crazy.

House sparrows are social and vigorous.

House sparrows often take over empty purple martin houses and bluebird nest boxes.