Bathing Sparrows
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Tag Archives: House Sparrow
The Return of the House Sparrows
You can hear them long before they’re visible in the garden – the House Sparrows certainly don’t seem to be known for their silence! This particular family were regular visitors to the garden (and the bird bath) last year, and this spring they’ve rediscovered their love of sharing a bath.
However, by the look of things, these two males weren’t overly happy at the initial idea of sharing their bath water. After a brief moment of wing flapping though, they did settle down and share the bath.
Sparrow Feather Details
You don’t normally get to see the back of a House Sparrow in any great detail – invariably when they do sit still, they’re facing the camera! This one chose to turn its back on me, which gave a fantastic view of the feather details down its back (I’m not certain if this was a male or female).
Drip Drip Drip
Drying those feathers can take a while – this particular House Sparrow sat there for ages, before joining the other Sparrows in a nearby tree.
Drip Drying
After all that bathing, you need to sit somewhere safe to drip dry – this House Sparrow chose the tallest branch to sit in, while appearing to ponder over another dip in the bird bath.
Bathing birds – another caption
Back to the bathing birds, and another caption – the House Sparrow on the right doesn’t look too happy at the other birds sharing his bath…. what do you reckon he’s thinking?
Caption the Sparrow!
There’s something about this photo that is crying out for a caption – just what is the House Sparrow on the left saying?
Synchronised Sparrows
These two House Sparrows look more like they’re in training for synchronised swimming than having a bath. Both decided to duck under the water at the same time, which lead to a lot of splashing.
There wasn’t much water left in the bath after they’d finished!
Soggy Sparrows
Not content with letting the Blackbird hog the bird bath, the House Sparrows insisted on having a turn. They rarely bathe solo, with up to seven birds sitting in the bath at the same time!
Goldfinch Party
While the sparrows were fighting over the bird bath, the Goldfinch decided to make the most of the seed feeder. These seeds weren’t the success were were lead to believe they would be – it seems that the Goldfinches don’t really think of them as such a treat after all.
This bird made them seem so desirable though, that the blue tit decided to try some.
And even the sparrow wanted to sample some!
Generally though, only the finches and Coal Tit are able to get the seeds from the narrow slit in the feeder, so the sparrows have to make do with picking up any seeds that have fallen to the ground.