House sparrows are perhaps the most cosmopolitan of all birds, and have lived alongside humans since the Stone Age. These small, streaky-brown birds were once a very common sight in Britain. Sadly, they are now rather rare their numbers having declined at an alarming rate over the past 25 years. House sparrows are very sociable, nesting colonially in crevices, holes and boxes, and even evicting swallows and martins from their nests. They breed so rapidly, their eggs were once believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac.

Did you know?
A house sparrow's retina has 400,000 photoreceptors per square millimetre.


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