Hi friends! It's World Sparrow Day (WSD) on March 20. This is a wake-up call. Our little friends are fast disappearing. Let's work together to find ways and means to protect the sparrow population. The reasons for their depleting numbers is the change in our lifestyle, the vibrations from mobile phone towers which can affect the eggs of the birds, lack of trees, the houses of today which don't provide comfortable places for sparrows to make a home.
Lack of accommodation.
House sparrows, our tiny and lovely companions during the past decades, lived near human habitation, built their nests in the nooks and crannies of our houses, behind the photographs or calling bells. Now they don't find such places in our houses.
Lack of nourishing food.
The heavy use of pesticides, chemicals and fertilizer in agriculture, killed the worms and insects that the sparrow chicks fed on and hindered their attaining maturity. In those days, grain harvested in the fields were cleaned in the courtyards of homes and provision shops and chaff was thrown to the birds, eagerly waiting in the suburbs. The little sparrows then flocked to a huge banquet. Now, grocery shops are few in number. Grain is mechanically cleaned, packed in polythene bags and sold in supermarkets. No open spaces in houses or grannies who clean the grains..So no food for our little companions, whose lives depended on the helping hand of humans who were the cause of their downfall and made it difficult for them to survive.
But hope was not lost. In the 2010s, several organisations came together to create an awareness and to conserve not only the house sparrow, but also many common birds. Hence, this celebration of World Sparrow Day all over the world..this year on March 20.
What can we do?
Scatter a grain in a flat dish and keep a clean pan of water everyday in our garden, verandah or open space.
Learn to make bird feeders that we can use at home and school.
Create awareness by talking to friends and others.
Monitor the birds around us.
Host a WSD party, have a fancy dress competition, get sparrow tattoos or go on a sparrow walk.
Visit an interesting website to know what we can do. http:/www.natureforever.org/blog/tag/world-sparrow-day.
(Compiled with the courtesy of the Hindu - Young World . Thanks to Ms. Rohini Ramakrishnan, the author of the article "Celebrate a companion").
Hello Chikkoo, my dear friend! I dedicate the compilation of the above article to you, your friends, all your ancestors and kith and kin. My love and best wishes to you all on this World Sparrow Day!
Lack of accommodation.
House sparrows, our tiny and lovely companions during the past decades, lived near human habitation, built their nests in the nooks and crannies of our houses, behind the photographs or calling bells. Now they don't find such places in our houses.
Lack of nourishing food.
The heavy use of pesticides, chemicals and fertilizer in agriculture, killed the worms and insects that the sparrow chicks fed on and hindered their attaining maturity. In those days, grain harvested in the fields were cleaned in the courtyards of homes and provision shops and chaff was thrown to the birds, eagerly waiting in the suburbs. The little sparrows then flocked to a huge banquet. Now, grocery shops are few in number. Grain is mechanically cleaned, packed in polythene bags and sold in supermarkets. No open spaces in houses or grannies who clean the grains..So no food for our little companions, whose lives depended on the helping hand of humans who were the cause of their downfall and made it difficult for them to survive.
But hope was not lost. In the 2010s, several organisations came together to create an awareness and to conserve not only the house sparrow, but also many common birds. Hence, this celebration of World Sparrow Day all over the world..this year on March 20.
What can we do?
Scatter a grain in a flat dish and keep a clean pan of water everyday in our garden, verandah or open space.
Learn to make bird feeders that we can use at home and school.
Create awareness by talking to friends and others.
Monitor the birds around us.
Host a WSD party, have a fancy dress competition, get sparrow tattoos or go on a sparrow walk.
Visit an interesting website to know what we can do. http:/www.natureforever.org/blog/tag/world-sparrow-day.
(Compiled with the courtesy of the Hindu - Young World . Thanks to Ms. Rohini Ramakrishnan, the author of the article "Celebrate a companion").
Hello Chikkoo, my dear friend! I dedicate the compilation of the above article to you, your friends, all your ancestors and kith and kin. My love and best wishes to you all on this World Sparrow Day!
