Sparrow Suprabhatam

And mynahs, actually. I guess because our road has become more wooded and the road trees have gotten big, there is a regular bird "orchestra" in the mornings.

About four or five years ago, it was only the crows that woud caw us awake. In the last one year, though, its become like a jazz band - mynahs, sparrow, parakeet, the occasional kingfisher and of course the ubiquitous crows and pigeons. As they all chirpily go about their early morning activities, it has become our morning "suprabhatam", our pranaams to nature, and more mundanely our morning wake-up alarm!

Some mornings though there is a mynah which tries out its various calls (at 5am!), sitting on our window sill. The calls go from clucks to cheeps to tuk tuks and everything in-between. Those mornings, I have to admit that I put the pillow over my head, mumbling to the mynah to take its cheerfulness elsewhere.... You know, one of these mornings, I hope to be a better and more dedicated birder than I am, spring out of bed and record that mynah!

Until that day arrives, I shall satisfy myself with this little clip of our sweet sparrow friend. Unlike the mynah, this sparrow wakes you up gently and sweetly. He also revisits through the morning, swinging on the TV cable wire outside my window.

Take a look at the clip - the first five seconds is blurred, but then the camera focuses on the sparrow.

Charlie, though nothing as spectacular as the South African dawn chorus, this one, of Chennai's urban chorus, is for you!



This sparrow has put me in a quandary - to feed or not to feed that is the question that begs an answer.

Bird feeders - good or bad??

Should I not let him (sparrow I mean) be and fend for himself?
Why should I make him dependent upon me by resorting to feeding?
Just because I want to see more of him and other birds? Is that environmentally a good practice?

I trawled the net for some articles on the pros and cons, and surprisingly came up with nothing about the environmental ethics of it. There was a much quoted 2002 article in The Wall Street Journal, about how bird feeders spread disease among birds, which was huffily contested by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology here, and The Hilton Pond Centre here.

But little else.

I'm inclined not to feed, for the moment. I will enjoy his comings and goings, as he pleases. He does not need me, and that suits me fine.