They’re so tiny and cute 🥺

Seen around Essendon

  • PeelerSheila @aussie.zone
    17·
    10 months ago

    Sparrows. An introduced species I think. There used to be heaps of them around, almost a plague of them when I was a kid, but I don’t see anywhere near those numbers anymore. And yes, they are cute! They love small seeds.

    • Baku@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      Thanks Sheila! I see them occasionally but they almost always like to run away from people from what I’ve seen. These guys were running pretty much right in front of me which I haven’t seen them do before

  • Thornburywitch@aussie.zoneEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    Def house sparrows. Used to be a lot around in the northern suburbs, but the millenium drought knocked over quite a lot of colonies. Introduced back in the 1800s by the Acclimatisation Society among others - so the new colonists would feel more at home in this alien landscape. Now at very low numbers as the supply of urban horse manure (a major food source) has dropped a lot since the introduction of motor cars. Also magpies, currawongs and kookaburras prey on baby sparrows which is keeping the population under control pretty well.
    They used to be a major nuisance nesting on buildings, but pigeons seem to have taken over that niche as well. I prefer sparrows I think.
    The males are the ones with lots of black feathers on their heads and bright brown feathers too - the females are mostly brown & grey. The bigger the black patch on the head, the more dominant the male is in the colony. Colonies can be several hundred birds. Saw a lovely documentary about them some years ago.