New housing development unsuitable for house sparrows

House Sparrow by Harry Appleyard, Furzton Lake 28 December 2016

As a species closely associated with people and urban areas, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) was expected to prosper with increased urbanization. Over the past few decades, however, house sparrow populations have decreased in many towns and cities around the world. The most commonly mentioned reasons for these decreases are lack of food, especially invertebrates, and fewer nesting sites and shelters. Given the need to evaluate the role of newly built homes and their effect on sparrow habitat, our overall goal was to evaluate if new housing areas are inhabited with a lower density of house sparrows than old housing areas and, if so, to identify factors responsible for the differences.