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| Sparrow species in urban area/ | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 17 2014, 01:31 AM (705 Views) | |
| Peregrine | Jul 17 2014, 01:31 AM Post #1 |
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Unicellular Organism
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I often see house sparrows in the city. Tree sparrows are more rare. In suburbs both species are common, tree sparrow prefer parks and gardens. |
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| Cape Leopard | Jul 17 2014, 10:29 PM Post #2 |
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Heterotrophic Organism
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Cape Sparrows are common in certain areas of Cape Town where I live - they certainly seem to be more abundant than the introduced House Sparrows here. |
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| Koolyote | Jul 17 2014, 11:02 PM Post #3 |
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Martes
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There is a lot of Spanish sparrows here, in fact, maybe a bit too much of them. Edit : Actually I think they're rather Italian sparrows. Edited by Koolyote, Jul 18 2014, 12:52 AM.
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| Mesopredator | Feb 13 2018, 06:29 PM Post #4 |
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Disaster taxa
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If I remember correctly in Asia tree sparrows inhabit urban areas. Here in the Netherlands we had a decline of house sparrows; probably because they need open spaces, insects and a bit of a messy environment. In the urban areas you'll see mostly seed eating birds - or trash eating birds - I think because urban spaces lack insects; that's what I'm guessing. Most of what I see are pigeons, corvids (crow family) and gulls. Amsterdam is known for its grey herons. Here, feral pigeons are on the decline, while wood pigeons are prospering. I know that in Australia you have ibises in the urban areas. It would still be cool if I could become a urban ecologist but I have so many projects that I don't like to be stuck in one profession.My idea for more biodiverse cities comes largely from the book Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. I am not that fond of city planning because they tend to create similar spaces, I think for more wildlife in urban areas we need more diversity in building. There was a project near a forest I take walks to in which you could build your own house, that seems nice. I guess it is difficult to find the right balance between wildness and a feeling of safety. I've read that people can feel uneasy about messy environments. There's this effect called the broken windows effect. We associate certain environments with, say, poverty and crime. So we want environments that are tidy and open. I read about the High Line Park; how it was first a wild space and how they turned it into a full tidy garden. I would personally have gone for the middle ground; see if you can make it open and safe enough while still having spontanous flora - and with it fauna. I'm still thinking, just for the sake of it, how you can have as many microhabitats in cities as possible and have a few corridors for wildlife to move in and out. I've read that fishers use tunnels to move about. I've read about wild boars using bike tunnels here in the Netherlands. My book Urban Carnivores states that death by car is high with carnivores. I absolutely agree with Emma Marris that messy places, those with spontanous plants, can have value. I bought the book Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Peter Del Tredici, and I like his approach to spontanous plants. I've said this before and I will say it again: I think what is worth intervening is when the result of laissez faire is a monopoly or sterile environment. I notice that not in all countries urban ecology is a thing. I tried to look for books and papers about the urban flora of temperate Australia and New Zealand as a whole. I guess there's more prejudice to their urban flora because it lacks nativeness. I don't think that's fully true; I've found several New Zealand plants that are surviving in the urban environments and a few have become naturalized in the Netherlands, and also in the UK which has a popular culture of gardening. I'll admit that I've looked at flora from different countries and tried to predict which would've likely naturalize next. It is contradictive to say that I can, since I have said that prediction is really difficult and we do not know what things lead to. Yet, I do think that some prediction is possible. |
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- I think because urban spaces lack insects; that's what I'm guessing. Most of what I see are pigeons, corvids (crow family) and gulls. Amsterdam is known for its grey herons. Here, feral pigeons are on the decline, while wood pigeons are prospering. I know that in Australia you have ibises in the urban areas. It would still be cool if I could become a urban ecologist but I have so many projects that I don't like to be stuck in one profession.
9:55 AM Jul 11