Sparrows, Switzerland’s most common bird, are dwindling in Europe
Present alongside our ancestors for almost 10,000 years, sparrows are among the birds closest to humans and are the most common in Switzerland. But in Europe their population is declining, notes the Swiss Ornithological Institute.
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Sparrows, Switzerland’s most common bird, are dwindling in Europe
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“Few birds are as close to us as sparrows,” the institute said in a statement to mark World Sparrow Day on Friday.
In Switzerland, house sparrows and tree sparrows are the best-known members of the family. But there are others: the white-winged snowfinch lives in the high mountains, and Ticino is home to the only Swiss population of the Cisalpine sparrow (also known as the Italian sparrow), says the organisation.
+ You’re in luck if you spot these Swiss birds
The breeding population in Switzerland is doing well, according to the Swiss Ornithological Institute – 450,000-550,000 between 2013 and 2016 – but it is dwindling in Europe. In 2017, only 11% of the sparrows counted 14 years earlier remained in Paris. In England, the current number of sparrows is just 2% of the 1965 figure.
“We need to look beyond the familiarity of sparrows and help them by planting native shrubs or wild perennials in our gardens and avoiding pesticides,” the organisation stressed.
World Sparrow Day was launched in 2010 on the initiative of the Nature Forever Society in India. It has since been celebrated every year in different parts of the world.
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Adapted from Frenchby AI/ts
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