They were tame, staying put when two people walked close to them. Afterwards, the oldest (see below) did leave the other two.
The two I think are younger have mid-brown crowns, rather than the grey-brown of an adult female; and their underparts and rump are light brown with slight streaking.
The third bird has a greyer crown; and its underparts are greyer, but they are still brownish-grey with darker flank streaking - not the uniform grey of adult birds.
(Comments welcome. None of my bird books give good descriptions or pictures of juvenile H sparrows).
2 comments:
On reflection, I think the bird I had as an older juvenile could be an adult female, although I cannot explain the flank markings. I've remembered to look in my new 2nd edition of 'Britain's Birds', and this shows ad female underparts as "unstreaked pale grey-buff" - quite different from the streaked grey painted in the Collins Bird Guide - and different from the plain grey of the male. Need to look at common birds more carefully!
Juvenile House Sparrows outside my kitchen window are recognisable by their slightly smaller size, their begging with fluttering wings for crumbs from the adults, and their affection for their siblings (perching touching each other.) The very youngest still have a little yellow at the sides of their beaks. I only shake the table cloth out there, getting a maximum of 9 sparrows so far and a couple of Dunnocks.
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