House Sparrow | गौरैया or चिड़िया (Pic Googled)
This post is not related to travel but to the declining House Sparrows (Passer Domesticus).
Most of us now stay in flats and are restricted to a balcony which works for us in many capacity …. a garden, a sit out, household work space so on and so forth.
My hometown is a thriving Industrial town, yet we are still blessed with plenty of house sparrows. We were lucky to have grown up knowing them. Unfortunately, the concrete cities and many urbanized areas are witnessing a fast decline in their numbers. It’s not surprising when some children say they have not seen them. Sad but true …..
Correctly identifying a House Sparrow & Tree Sparrow, by NFS
चिड़िया or गौरैया (house sparrow) are one of the most joyful creation and I hope we all can do our bit and bring them back.
My Journey In Attracting Sparrows To My Home:
I had noticed that there are sparrows in our area and I began on working to attract them to my balcony. I must warn you that it tests your patience 🙂
My greatest challenge was keeping away the pigeons. Unfortunately, every time I spread some grains around, the pigeons would flock along with the naughty squirrels, chatterbox mynas and noisy crows.
Sparrow Food Chart by NFS
I did some googling and came up with broken rice to attract the sparrows. I have two balconies, with one of them being big and park-facing. This was the closest to the trees the गौरैया called home. So my journey started to lure them. While I kept filling the feeder in the other balcony with bajra (Pearl millet), jowar (Sorghum) and other edibles; I started spreading some broken rice in the bigger one.
After many days I heard the sweet chirping ❤ Voila! Finally my persistence paid!
But this joy was short lived. The pigeons and squirrels discovered this spot and started flocking here as well. Even before the sparrows could reach them they would finish off everything 😦 I did not want this balcony to be another pigeon hangout. I gradually stopped spreading rice there and moved it to the smaller one. After much wait, maybe 15-20 days or so my chirpy friends, the चिड़िया, made their way there.
Well, this was not the end of the journey. I wanted to do away with the pigeons. Their menace and population growing at lightning speed is something I do not wish to contribute to knowingly. I googled and googled and googled ….. till I came across these bird feeders by Nature Forever.
This was the answer I was looking for …… The outlet is small and not easy for big birds to peck at. So now I have kept the pigeons at bay ….. the only ones who feed on the grains in the feeder are sparrows and squirrels.
I have again ordered the feeder from Nature Forever but this time as part of a Sparrow Combo pack. The pack has a feeder, a bracket to hang it, a sparrow nest and a terracotta bird bath. They not only adhere to timely delivery but ensure immaculate packing. You too can shop for them here http://www.shopping.natureforever.org/ It makes for a lovely gift too.
Nature Forever Sparrow Combo Pack
Ready to attract sparrows. This time in a bigger way with the combo.
If you too have spotted sparrows nearby, do try these products and fill your mornings with sweet tweets ❤
“The mission of Nature Forever Society (NFS) is to involve the citizens in the conservation movement of India. To achieve this, NFS has been working by launching initiatives which are simple and have far-reaching conservation value.” To know more about them and their work, follow this link: https://www.natureforever.org/index.html
Informative video on Sparrow Nest
Here’s a cute video on the joy spreading गौरैया ❤ that I came across……
You may like to read The Swift & Agile — Swallow
.
Gaining knowledge, is the first step to wisdom. Sharing it, is the first step to Humanity!
Happy Reading & Sharing!
Monika Ohson | TravelerInMe
