ROOM FOR A LITTLE ONE?

The once ubiquitous house sparrow has suffered a drastic decline. It’s time to step in and lend our small and charming neighbours a helping hand.

- HARRY MUNT

THE CLATTER OF TRAFFIC IS PIERCED MOMENTARILY by the sound of my drill screaming into the brickwork. I'm halfway up a ladder clinging to the chimney of my local pub, the Red Lion (which is ironically painted green), surrounded by an expansive landscape of concrete, interspersed by the occasional fluffy green bush.

My assistant, Matthew, relays screws to me with an outstretched arm. He has offered his assistance in return for a supermarket meal deal.

It’s August 2021 and we’re installing birdboxes around Portsmouth in the warmth of a golden sun. This is the seventh of the day. Four are already in place on the pub’s exterior and, earlier this morning, two went up on the walls of an antique furniture shop. Bar the boisterous gangs of gulls, there’s only one bird around, and it’s the very species we’re trying to create a home for: the humble house sparrow.

House sparrows, you see, need our help. They may be regarded as common brown birds, yet these characterful little passerines are struggling. We still don’t know exactly why, but in urban areas, it’s likely the result of air pollution attacking their delicate lungs; a catastrophic decline in their invertebrate prey; disease, including avian malaria; and the loss of the older buildings – complete with loose tiles, crooked eaves and other nooks and crannies – in which they nest.

Between 1966 and 2016, we lost a staggering 21.7 million of them, almost one per minute. The scenes of urban hedges fat with chestnut bodies and parks loud with evocative squabbles are now a distant memory. Hyde Park was once thronged with hundreds of sparrows but, like many other parts of the capital, has fallen silent.