January 16th, 2009: HOSP

This is a bad picture of two house sparrows. It was late, I was cold, I was also on the phone. Here is a better one for a couple weeks ago:

I see House sparrows (Passer domesticus) everywhere. You do too. They sound like this: chirp chirp! Really. House sparrows are an invasive species. And the invasion is serious people! They are on literally every street corner and every farmhouse in America. House sparrows (4 letter code = HOSP) were introduced in 1850 in New York City as a ploy to try and reduce the number of urban insects (because House sparrows like to eat them). The people of NYC were delighted to hear the happy sounds of House sparrows in neighborhoods where all other bird fauna had been wiped out. Other cities followed the trend, and the result is today’s surplus of HOSPs.

I didn’t know all that off the top of my head of course. I read it in Steven D. Garber’s book The Urban Naturalist. His approach to invasive species such as House sparrows aligns closely with my own. It’s not cool when an invasive threatens the status of a native species, but many invasives that do well in cities can’t compete in more wild settings. House sparrows aren’t going away, so we might as well learn to appreciate their cute little beaks and chirp chirp chirping. I’m happy to greet any bird I encounter in DC. In any case, the House sparrows don’t know that they’re invasive. They’re just doing their thing, and you gotta have respect for that.