In news– Every year, World Sparrow Day is celebrated on March 20 to raise awareness on protecting birds.
About World Sparrow Day-
- The Nature Forever Society of India and the Eco-Sys Action Foundation of France came up with the idea for World Sparrow Day.
- Nature Forever Society is a non-government organization (NGO) run by Mohammed Dilawar, who’s an internationally acclaimed conservationist.
- The World Sparrow Day was first held in 2010.
- It is an effort to create awareness about all these species which are spread across three continents namely Asia, Africa and Europe.
- The theme for 2022 is “Monitor the Sparrows & other common birds”
About House Sparrow-
- The humble house sparrow is one of the world’s most common and widespread species, commonly seen wild bird in world.
- Apart from the house sparrow, there are other twenty-six distinct species of Sparrow.
- It has been transported all over the world by European settlers and can now be found on two-thirds of the landmasses of the world including New Zealand, Australia, North America, India and Europe.
- It is only absent from areas like China, Indochina, Japan and areas of Siberia and Australia to the east and tropical Africa and northern areas of South America to the west.
- In India, it came to be classified as a domestic species.
- It is a very social bird and is gregarious at all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other types of bird.
- It roosts communally, its nests are usually grouped together in clumps, and it engages in a number of social activities, such as dust and water bathing, and “social singing“, in which birds call together in bushes.
- The main reasons for their decline are believed to be increasing pollution, urbanization, global warming and vanishing ecological resources.
- Delhi government in 2012 declared House Sparrow as state bird.
- It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red list.
Source: Live mint
