Sparrows as Opportunists

Wilson, Michael M.

doi:10.1071/mu954067d

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The use of this car-based insect food resource is inadequately studied, even if the first observation of the use of insects smashedon cars by the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in London (U.K) was reported in 1928 [24]. After that first observation, anecdotal observations of this behavior have been reported worldwide [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. However, to our best knowledge, there are no studies where the use of insects on front panels of cars by birds has been studied more widely and in a systematic way.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Birds Using Insects on Front Panels of Cars

Jokimäki

Kaisanlahti‐Jokimäki

2023

Birds

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Urbanization influences the food availability and quality for birds in many ways. Although a great amount of food for birds is provided incidentally or intentionally in urban areas, the quantity of insect-based food can be reduced in cities. We studied the role of one artificial food source, insects smashed on the front panels of cars, in Finland, and more specifically in the city of Rovaniemi, by conducting questionnaire research, searching for data from databases and performing a field study. Our results indicated that a total of seven bird species have been detected using insects on the front panels of cars in Finland. However, this behavior is not yet common since about 60% of responders to the questionnaire stated that this behavior is currently either rare or very rare. Most of the observations identified House Sparrows, followed by the White Wagtail or the Eurasian Jackdaw. Only a few observations identified the Eurasian Tree Sparrow, the Hooded Crow, the Great Tit and the Eurasian Magpie. The phenomenon was distributed quite widely across Finland, except in the case of the Eurasian Jackdaws, for which observations were restricted only to the southern part of the country. The first observation was made about the House Sparrow in 1971, followed by the White Wagtail (1975), Hooded Crow (1997), Eurasian Jackdaw (2006), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (2011), Eurasian Magpie (2019) and Great Tit (2022). The species using this food source are mainly sedentary urban exploiters, such as corvids and sparrows, that have been previously reported to have several different types of innovative behaviors. Most of the observations were conducted in urban parking sites of hypermarkets, and no observations were made in residential areas. Most of the foraging observations were made during the end phase of the breeding season, partly supporting the extra need for high-quality insect-based food for nestlings and fledglings. Our observations indicate that this behavior is not yet common and widespread among species.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Birds Using Insects on Front Panels of Cars

Jokimäki

Kaisanlahti‐Jokimäki

2023

Birds

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Innovative Foraging Behavior of Urban Birds: Use of Insect Food Provided by Cars

Jokimäki,

Ramos-Chernenko

2024

Birds

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Despite high-quality insect food being often restricted in cities, insects are important for the development of birds. Nonetheless, plenty of insects are smashed on cars, and they are available for those species that are able to use them. We used both our own data and community science and Internet sources for surveying global, national, and local data about birds using insects on cars. Our results contained a total of 308 observations of birds collecting insects on car panels, which indicated that 39 species used this food resource since 1928 in 33 countries. Most observations considered the House Sparrow, followed by the White Wagtail and several species of corvids. European urban bird species observed to use insects on cars had a larger residual brain size. There was also some indication that bird species using insects on cars had a larger number of innovations (i.e., production of novel behaviors), greater diet generalism, and longer times living in urbanized areas than birds not observed using insects on cars. Often these species are also resident and able to use food offered in feeding sites. We assume that more bird species will use insects on cars in the future, as urban insect populations continue to decline, and thereby insects on cars will increasingly become more important sources of food for urban birds.

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Sparrows as Opportunists

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Urban Birds Using Insects on Front Panels of Cars

Urban Birds Using Insects on Front Panels of Cars

Innovative Foraging Behavior of Urban Birds: Use of Insect Food Provided by Cars

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