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November 09, 2005

A St. Louis Specialty

A few weeks ago when I parked my car on the LREC parking lot, I noticed a bustle of activity in the bush directly in front of me and found a half dozen Eurasian Tree Sparrows. I smiled and continued to watch the birds hop around in the bush, foraging for seeds and chipping to their neighbors. Before my time with the LREC, I had checked songbird nestboxes for two summers and there were two locations where Eurasian Tree Sparrows used these boxes. I fell in love with these birds and watching them develop from naked tiny baby birds into fully feathered functioning birds of an avian community made the days of walking in the hot sun, trudging through stinging nettle and poison ivy and dodging wasps that inhabited the nestboxes worthwhile.

During that first year of checking the boxes, I learned that the Eurasian Tree Sparrows were found only in the St. Louis area (though now I have since learned that there are small populations as far north as Iowa) and serious birders from all over the country came to our city to get a glimpse of these birds. You can only imagine my excitement when I learned there was a small population of Eurasian Tree Sparrows on the LREC property.

The Eurasian Tree Sparrows can be easily distinguished from their House Sparrow cousins by the presence of a black dot on their white cheek patch. They also have a rusty brown cap and lack the black bib commonly found on the House Sparrow.

Eurasian Tree Sparrows are native to Europe, Asia, China, Japan, Siberia, northern India, Taiwan and southeast Asia. These little birds do not belong to the sparrow family but rather the weaver family and there are at least 33 subspecies of Eurasian Tree Sparrows found within its wide range.

In April 1870, 20 Eurasian Tree Sparrows were released in Lafayette Park. During this time, it was common for immigrant residents to release European birds to control insect populations and fulfill their desire to see the birds from their homeland. The House Sparrow, another European bird released in the eastern portion of the United States, began its encroachment into the St. Louis area around 1878, forcing the Eurasian Tree Sparrows out of their established territories. While the House Sparrow populations exploded over the United States, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow numbers remained small but steady in the St. Louis area and surrounding counties.

Today the Eurasian Tree Sparrow is commonly found in St. Louis County and City, the floodplains of eastern St. Charles County and in Calhoun and Madison counties of Illinois. These sparrows prefer to live on farmland and other open, cultivated areas but will move into parks and suburbs to avoid living in close proximity of their aggressive House Sparrow cousins.

Eurasian Tree Sparrows are primarily seedeaters, eating weed, corn, millet, wheat, and sunflower seeds, grass and seed shoots though the adult sparrows will feed their young offspring a diet of insects and spiders. Eurasian Tree Sparrows mate for life and will nest in colonies during the breeding season, raising their young from nestboxes, tree cavities and even the crooks and eaves of houses and buildings.

The Eurasian Tree Sparrow creates an orb-shaped nest with the outer layer composed of coarse grass material while the inner portion of the nest is lined with down and finer vegetative matter. The eggs hatch after about 2 weeks of incubation and the young birds fledge at 15-20 days of age.

Why is it that the Eurasian Tree Sparrows have remained in a limited area, while other introduced European birds such as the Rock Pigeon, European Starling and House Sparrow have flourished all over the United States? There is no definite answer, though there are several possibilites. It is common knowledge that House Sparrows are much more aggressive than Eurasian Tree Sparrows and dominate food and nesting sources where the territories of the two species overlap. Studies have also shown that Eurasian Tree Sparrows do not migrate and the newly fledged offspring do not wander far from the nest to establish their territories.

There are several places to find these St. Louis specialty birds. Keep in mind these birds like open land, will perch in shrubby areas and nest in big thick tree cavities. Be forewarned that finding these birds may be no easy task. Birding is like fishing. Both require a great deal of preparation, patience, tenacity and the ability to deal with disappointment if the day doesn't go as planned. Eurasian Tree Sparrows are easier to find during the fall and winter months, where they flock in fairly large numbers to feed and forage on the ground. Spring and summer are a hit-and-miss time of the year as the birds are busy breeding and raising their young.

There have been consistent sightings of the birds on the floodplains found on Aubuchon and Missouri Bottom Roads. Marais Temp Clair Conservation Area in St. Charles, the Riverlands Environmental Demonstration Area and the gravel road leading into the Edward "Ted" and Pat Jones - Confluence Point State Park, both in West Alton, are sure places to find the sparrows during the winter. You can also find Eurasian Tree Sparrows in Sioux Passage Park and St. Stanislaus Park in North County, Grafton Ferry Road and North River Front Park in north St. Louis. In Illinois, Eurasian Tree Sparrows have been spotted at Horseshoe Lake and the Brussels Ferry in Calhoun County.

The Webster Groves Nature Study Society leads weekly bird walks and have created a website that is rich with information on St. Louis wildlife. They have also published an excellent book, Birds of the St. Louis Area: Where and When to Find Them that include information on the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. You may also want to call their birding hotline to find out the latest bird sightings (314) 935-8432

For those of you who visit the LREC site with your students, look for the Eurasian Tree Sparrows in the shrubs next to the parking lot, at the feeders on the deck and along the south prairie. You may even want to try your luck and put up a bird feeder or a nestbox at your school. Good luck and I hope you get a glimpse of the bird found only in the St. Louis area.

RESOURCES:

Sibley, David Allen. 2001. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Webster Groves Nature Study Society. 1998. Birds of the St. Louis Area: Where and When To Find Them. Missouri: Murray Print Shop, Inc.

Chipper Woods Bird Observatory

Missouri Conservationist Online

Webster Groves Nature Study Society

Posted by Colleen Crank on November 9, 2005 06:44 PM

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Posted by Cynthia Burgess on November 14, 2005 11:30 AM

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