An Overview of Current Population Trends, Nesting, Breeding Behavior and Threats to House Sparrow Survival

The house sparrow is widely distributed in all types of habitat, including urban, rural, agricultural and forest. It shows very close association with human habitation because they generally live nearby houses and constructed nests on man-made structures. They utilize a broad range of nesting material, including plant matter and anthropogenic derived waste matter especially plastics, threads, hairs, pins, cloth parts etc. The clutch size of house sparrows ranges from one to eight eggs per nest and incubation lasts up to 14 days. Both male and female birds actively participate in nest construction and parental care of young. Rapid urbanization and industrialization have become major threats to sparrow survival. Population also declines due to a lack of appropriate nesting and roosting sites. Natural predators such as eagles, kites, owls, shikra and snakes feed upon house sparrows.