Islington Tribune - by NANCY SMALLWOOD Published: 27 June 2008
A sparrow is measured
Experts’ eye on disappearing sparrow
SAVING the common house sparrow was the aim of a bird-netting project in Islington on Wednesday. In an attempt to find clues to the drop in the sparrow population – down by 70 per cent in a decade – Royal Society for the Protection of Birds researchers hung fine-mesh nets to catch the birds. The nets were placed in Laycock Street, near a colony of 20 nesting pairs of sparrows. Seventeen sparrows were caught, measured, tagged and then released. The drop in numbers has been blamed on lack of food and shelter, and changes in habitat but other factors are believed to be at work.