Think inside the box: Bring back the sparrows

One of the best things about my workspace is having a window that looks out onto a leafy neighbourhood. In the heart of T Nagar, Chennai’s bustling commercial district, the road here is lined with century-old trees that are home to a curious mix of urban avian wildlife. In the evenings, a pandemonium of parakeets competes with the din of the evening traffic. An occasional squirrel darts across a tree branch, with a crow in hot pursuit. Pigeons fly past the window regularly, and kites hover in the azure sky above the green canopy. I’ve been lucky to spot some babblers, bulbuls and mynas in the neighbour’s large mango tree. Yet I missed my favourite bird, the house sparrow.

So it was to my delightful surprise that a sparrow landed on the sill, pecking at something I couldn’t see. A female it was, I presumed, going by the pale brown plumage. She lifted a leg and spun around like a ballet dancer, the tail flicking with every shrill chirrup. I realised she was in a state of agitation only the next moment when a pigeon appeared in the window frame, flapping its wings menacingly at the little one. It was almost like Donald Trump having Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. The sparrow disappeared and never returned.

That fleeting moment captured an unequal war in our urban jungles: Pigeon vs Sparrow. Urbanisation is making this battlefield more and more advantageous to the pigeon, driving away the smaller bird to the outskirts – and to virtual oblivion. Indian cities have been home to at least six species of sparrows – house sparrow, Sind sparrow, Spanish sparrow, Russet sparrow, yellow-throated sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow which contribute to pest control (they feed on insects and larvae) and pollination. The first one that goes by the scientific name Passer domesticus, which was the most common, has become a rarity.

Sparrows like to be in proximity to human settlements where they get grain (no wonder why they still flock to our FCI godowns). Cats have been their prime predator at home; now pigeons, though not their predators in the food chain, have invaded their space. While on trees, crows attack them, while foraging on the ground and terraces, pigeons descend on them. Sparrows loved old houses with tiled roofs that offered perfect crevices for them to nest and breed. One of their favourite resting places used to be the triangular space behind the framed photographs that hung slanting on the verandah walls of old Indian homes.

The steel-and-glass facades of our modern buildings add to the rising temperatures and leave no space for smaller birds. Sparrows prefer tiny spaces, while pigeons, the masters of urban adaptation, turn any space such as an air-conditioner vent and a sunshade into nests. Pigeons, which have also been found to be carriers of several pathogens, have proliferated so much in our cities that they should be considered vermin.

A TOI report in 2023 said the sparrow population in Chennai is looking up, thanks to awareness. How do we bring more of them back? A few years ago, shopkeepers in Adambakkam showed how: They kept shoe boxes with hay on walls and roofs, and in a few weeks, sparrows were chirping all over (the nearby ration shop that spilled grain on the street was a bonus). If you live in an ‘independent’ house, with a backyard, or in an apartment that isn’t more than three stories high, you may attract sparrows (they don’t fly high) by keeping small boxes or creating spaces on the balcony or above the outdoor unit of the air-conditioner. The authorities should promote sparrow feeding in parks with designated spaces.

If you want another reason, well, March 20 is World Sparrow Day.