…but others see them as birds and worthy of photographing. Good decision, no?
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
If it is a bird and has feathers I will photograph it. It isn’t the birds fault that they have been introduced, humans did that. Yes, they are worthy of photographing.
I see them as the Ur-bird. The exist for no other reason that humans do. Their habitat is our habitat. They belong anywhere we are. I think they are awesome.
One nice thing about House Sparrows. If you go to one of those old-time farm communities where people dress up like 19th century folks, butcher hogs, and make shoo-fly pie, one of the truly authentic sounds that eminate frome every rafter is the cheeping of House Sparrows. What you hear today is exactly what they heard when they walked out of their houses 130 years ago. Now if only Apple could make an app, they could call it i-sparrow.
I happen to really enjoy House Sparrows. They are cute birds and I do not believe they enjoy killing other birds, such as blue birds, but rather they are very industrious about nesting. I have put out bird houses to attract blue birds and they fly back and forth, taking weeks to decide if the box is what they like. It is no wonder the House Sparrows take over–blue birds take forever! I actually have 2 houses, painted white, blue decorations on them with the addition of a front porch, which we put out just for the House Sparrows. They live in them all winter and I enjoy seeing them year round. We might as well accept the fact that they are here to stay (after about 200 years no less) and the song birds seem to be doing just fine. If these sparrows were such horrible birds, by now there would not be a song bird left. I refuse to hurt any bird, let alone do some of the aggressive control tactics that I have read others use to “control” the population of House Sparrows. There are millions of them, so killing off a dozen or so will not make a bit of difference. Let them live as they please and enjoy their cute antics and enthusiastic behavior. Mine have disappeared for a few weeks, which they do at the end of every summer. I miss them and I am looking forward to later this month when they will return and start nest building for the winter. I have lined each bird house with pine tree branches and soft hay to get them started.