Wow — a bunch of European house sparrows, Passer domesticus, gathering grain. Are they in a wheat field? Nope. They are systematically taking apart an autumn wreath on the door of a Brooklyn brownstone. Looks a bit bare on the lower left, doesn’t it? A dozen more sparrows sat the on the steps below, waiting […]
Tag: passer domesticus
Polar Vortex Winter Birds
It was a cold week in New York. As I sat writing at my desk by the window I saw the neighborhood birds in another light. One of the ways birds keep warm is by fluffing up their insulating feathers; they looked like puffballs all week. They have other ways to keep warm. Their feet […]
Rubʿ al-Khali; The Empty Quarter
At the start of this year I visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and was fortunate to spend a few days at Shaybah in the northeastern edge of this, the world’s largest desert. This region is classified as ‘hyper-arid’ with typical rainfall of less than 30mm per year and is one of the driest regions […]
The Desert Sparrow Project
The Desert Sparrow (Passer simplex) is a small passerine found in North Africa and Central Asia. So far two subspecies have been described for the Sahara desert (P.s. simplex and P. s. saharae); the third subspecies, localized in areas of Irán, Turkmenistán and Uzbekistán, also known as Zarduny’s Sparrow (P. S. Zarudnyi), may be split […]
Les moineaux
Le Moineau domestique (Passer domesticus) est une espèce de petits passereaux de la famille des Passeridae. Il se nourrit majoritairement de céréales et d’autres graines, mais sait s’adapter et tirer profit d’autres opportunités, consommant divers invertébrés, les insectes en premier lieu, qui servent par ailleurs d’alimentation de base aux oisillons. Le plumage du Moineau domestique […]
Sunday Breakfast
I scatter seeds on my porch for the birds when the weather gets cold. This morning I had lots of visitors. Click on the photos to enlarge. House sparrows, Passerdomesticus, are always the first to arrive. They like seeds and breadcrumbs. They usually come in a group. The cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, eats seeds, nuts, and […]
Wind Surfers
A pair of songbirds cut loose from winter’s touch, surfing a cool backyard wind. • Sparrow | Passer domesticus
Emotional Fireworks
Emotional fireworks scatter like confetti, an airborne argument between petty criminals. Sparrow – Passer domesticus