As many of you will have read the house sparrow is in serious decline [1] in urban and suburban areas of the UK, and northern Europe in general. The reasons aren't fully known but a recent PhD thesis by Kate Vincent suggests a lack of insects on which to rear the second and third broods of chicks. Other factors may include lack of nesting sites, fewer hedges and lack of winter food. Here are some ideas on what you can do to help your local sparrows
Helen and Richard organised a survey of the Ipswich area by members of the Ipswich RSPB Local group to find out which areas had sparrows and which did not.
The results of the survey. The surveyed zone is split up into squares of an even size. Rather than the 2km x 2km tetrads normally used, which are a bit large in scale for the town and for the range of house sparrows, we have chosen to use smaller squares of 300m x 300m. The presence of sparrows observed in a square is shown by a green outline. A negative report for an area is shown by a red outline, unless there are positive reports of sparrows in the same square. Areas with no squares are unsurveyed.
1 http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/advice/sparrowinitiative.asp (this link is no longer current but archived here)