What makes new housing development unsuitable for house sparrows ( Passer domesticus )?

Investigating temporal and spatial correlates of the sharp decline of an urban exploiter bird in a large European city

“…Specifically, House Sparrow numbers were positively affected by an increasing level of relatively recent buildings and a decreasing level of old buildings (SPC 2 estimate, Appendix A, Table 1A). Contrary to our expectation and to the results of other studies (Heij and Moeliker 1990;Singh et al 2013;Moudrá et al 2018), the number of House Sparrows was therefore not higher at census sites covered mainly with old buildings, which are commonly associated with nesting and resting sites. This could mean that House Sparrows do not actually lack nesting sites in urban areas, as suggested by recent studies (Sheldon and Griffith 2017; Angelier and Brischoux 2019).…”

“…We found that House Sparrow numbers were higher at census sites with abundant green spaces and relatively new buildings, in opposition to census sites with no green spaces and dominated by old buildings. These results, in agreement with what have been demonstrated by other studies (Summers-Smith 1959;Heij and Moeliker 1990;Chamberlain et al 2007;Murgui 2009;Moudrá et al 2018), suggest that green spaces offer resources for House Sparrows that are otherwise scarce in the urban environment, and that green spaces are necessary to support locally high population sizes. These scarce resources are likely to be food (invertebrate preys, anthropogenic food, and gardening byproducts; Anderson 2006;Vincent 2006;Wilkinson 2006;Auman et al 2008;Peach et al 2015;Fischer et al 2015;Meillère et al 2017), and/or sheltering sites.…”

“…These scarce resources are likely to be food (invertebrate preys, anthropogenic food, and gardening byproducts; Anderson 2006;Vincent 2006;Wilkinson 2006;Auman et al 2008;Peach et al 2015;Fischer et al 2015;Meillère et al 2017), and/or sheltering sites. Actually, several recent studies have emphasized the likely role of decaying food quality and/or quantity in the decline of urban House Sparrows (Liker et al 2008;Meillère et al 2017;Moudrá et al 2018). Because invertebrate preys are crucial for the growth and the development of nestlings (Bolger 2001;Vincent 2006;Seress et al 2012;Meillère et al 2015a), and probably for survival over their first year of life (Bell 2011), a lack of invertebrate preys during the reproductive period has also been suggested as a proximate cause of the decline of urban House Sparrows (Vincent 2006;Bell 2011).…”

“…Surprisingly, a new drastic decline of urban populations of House Sparrows has been documented in many western European cities over the past decades (Bauer and Heine 1992;Bower 1999;Mitschke et al 1999;Easterbrook 1999;Dott and Brown 2000;McCarthy 2000;Witt 2000;Prowse 2002;Summers-Smith 2003, 2010De Laet and Summers-Smith 2007;Murgui and Macias 2010;Biadun and Zmihorski 2011;Seress et al 2012). This decline suggests that, although urban dwellers are expected to cope better with modifications of urban landscapes than urban utilisers or avoiders, they are still affected by modern modifications of the urban environment, such as new construction trends, reducing the amount of available nesting or sheltering sites (Moudrá et al 2018), or the improvement of sanitation in cities reducing food resource availability. Studying the causes of the decline of this urban sentinel species might thus help us better understand emerging biological constraints of urban life and their effects on wild vertebrates.…”

Does urbanization cause stress in wild birds during development? Insights from feather corticosterone levels in juvenile house sparrows (Passer domesticus)

“…Recently, Hudin et al () experimentally showed that an urban diet is associated with elevated feather CORT levels in juvenile house sparrows, supporting the idea that the urban diet may not be suitable for developing house sparrow nestlings (Meillère et al, ). Indeed, nestling house sparrows need a protein‐rich diet to grow properly (Anderson, ; White, ), but the availability of invertebrates is lower in cities relative to rural areas (Chace & Walsh, ; Hudin et al, ; Moudrá, Zasadil, Moudrý, & Šálek, ; Paker, Yom‐Tov, Alon‐Mozes, & Barnea, ; Summers‐Smith, ), and urban house sparrow parents feed their chicks a lower quality diet than their rural counterparts (Seress & Liker, ). In addition, urban food may contain heavy metals, which may contaminate nestlings (Dauwe, Janssens, Bervoets, Blust, & Eens, ; Raupp, Shrewsbury, & Herms, ; Zvereva & Kozlov, ) and lead to potential effects on growth, behavior or the immune system (e.g., pied flycatchers in Eeva, Hasselquist, Tummeleht, Nikinmaa, & Ilmonen, ; great tits in Gorissen et al, ; feral pigeons ( Columbia livia ) in Chatelain, Gasparini, & Frantz, ; reviewed in Montiglio & Royauté, ).…”