[All pictures of garden wildlife on this page are thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail for a large format to be displayed.]

Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)

Clickhere for the bird's sound.

The Tree Sparrow has a brown cap.

This bird is closely related to the House Sparrow and even looks exactly like it. It's also rather identical to the Hedge Sparrow, but the two species are not even closely related to another. The most importance differences between the Tree Sparrow and the House Sparrow are the brown cap (the cap of the House Sparrow is grey) and the white ringlike line on the neck, hence the Dutch name Ring Sparrow. One might consider this to be the wild edition of the House Sparrow, for the Tree Sparrow is a bird of the country side. Wherever the House Sparrow is absent, one might find the Tree Sparrow. It's less bound to the habitat of modern humans than the House Sparrow, but enough of an opportunist to take whatever food humans might want to offer.

Tree Sparrows love it when you feed them in winter.

Just like the House Sparrow Tree Sparrows often appear in great numbers. In a group they behave more civilized than House Sparrows do: there is less fighting among one another, less loud arguments. The Tree Sparrow is more cautious than the House Sparrow is. When scared, the whole group disappears at the same time in just one instance.

This bird belongs to the family of Sparrows (Passeridae). It is common in my garden and can be seen in Holland all year round. The bird is 5,5" and weighs 23 grams. It lives in parks, gardens and outskirts mostly. It eats seeds and insects. The birds belonging to different sexes look very similar. The building of the nest starts in April, but sometimes the last nest is not finished before the end of July. The bird looks for a hole in a tree to make its nest in. Then four to six eggs are laid, which are looked after for 13 days. The hatchlings take 15 days to leave the nest.

In our garden the Tree Sparrow is the rule, the House Sparrow the exception.