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.
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.
TIL. Thanks Thorny!