House Sparrow - Relationships With Humans

Relationships With Humans

The House Sparrow is closely associated with humans. They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago. Subspecies bactrianus is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral non-commensal populations. Usually, it is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals. Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds. In most of the world the House Sparrow is not protected by law. Attempts to control House Sparrows include the trapping, poisoning, or shooting of adults; the destruction of their nests and eggs; or less directly, blocking nest holes and scaring off sparrows with noise, glue, or porcupine wire. However, the House Sparrow can be beneficial to humans as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the House Sparrow have failed.

The House Sparrow has long been used as a food item. From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware "sparrow pots" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so that the young could be readily harvested. Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties. Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconer's birds and zoo animals. In the early part of the twentieth century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.

House Sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.