4 ms·
House Sparrows are invasive in the United States and they are very aggressive. They destroy the nests of native birds to eliminate competition.
by peanut_worm 4y ago
House Sparrows are invasive in the United States and they are very aggressive. They destroy the nests of native birds to eliminate competition.
- was_a_dev 4y agoThanks for the context - with House Sparrows being resident in Eurasia, I didn't understand the motivation for this either
- otter-rock 4y agoMany birds commonly seen in the US are non-native, and reduce native bird populations significantly. https://abcbirds.org/blog20/invasive-birds/ https://abcbirds.org/blog20/invasive-birds/
- peanut_worm 4y agoOdd that this list considers Cattle Egrets as invasive, I have never heard that before. They came here naturally just fairly recently. Their range expanded due to human activity but, rather interestingly, it was because they had more available food sources rather than physically being moved by people. They eat parasites off cattle so as cattle farming expanded so did their range. Herons are already capable of traversing entire continents, as can be seen with Night Herons. Cattle Egrets just didn’t really have a reason to expand until recently.
- trelane 4y agoWe have bluebird houses and can confirm. One box full of pecked-to-death bluebirds with house sparrow eggs on top of them is quite enough. I call the males "bearded bastards."
- anonu 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin Reminds me of this guy, who thought it would be a good idea to introduce the birds in Shakespeare's plays to the US.
- mikestew 4y agoThat’s because it’s the same guy who earlier sponsored the introduction of the house sparrow to the U. S.
- Sjeiti 4y agoThat is peculiar. Because in the Netherlands the native house sparrow population has declined significantly since the '90s.
- peanut_worm 4y agoSame is happening with Starlings. They are in decline in Europe but they thrive the North America