House sparrow

Size: The house sparrow is typically about 16 cm long, ranging from 14 to 18 cm. Weight ranges from 24 to 39.5 g.

Vocalisations: Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and frequent chirping call. Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip. Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as "chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it".

Habitat: can be met in towns and cities. Outside towns, found on farms, stables and stables where food can be easily found.

Behaviour: House sparrows are very social birds. They are gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds. House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and "social singing", in which birds call together in bushes. These little birds feed mostly on the ground, but they flock in trees and bushes. At feeding stations and nests, females are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season. On the ground, house sparrows typically hop rather than walk; they can also swim when forced to do so by pursuit from predators. House sparrows are omnivores and eat whatever foods are available. They feed mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries. They also commonly eat insects, molluscs, crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs. House sparrows are monogamous and typically mate for life. Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs. House sparrows breed in colonies and generally produce 2 broods per year. The female lays 4 or 5 white, bluish-white, or greenish-white eggs, spotted with brown or grey. In Latvia, there are about 750,000-2,000,000 couples.

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