Rohinton Mistry having visited Mumbai after a long time has said in an interview that he was happy to see kites flying on the Mumbai skyline following a thermal but was sorry he could not see many sparrows in the house. Many a friends from far off places have complained that the sparrows are a threatened species and were less found these days than in the recent past of 20yrs.
The reason being the interception of waves by communication towers hung all over the country and the breeding of these tiny birds thus severely affected. The other reason could be the closed apartments in metros and these tiny tots have no place to sleep.
In the large houses with high ceilings these birds in households were usual with their cyclical hopping on floor picking insects intermittently with their beaks being a common site. Their flybys from outside veranda and windows with hay punched between their beaks and their fluttering around holes and perches to make those innocuous nests. Their eggs spoiling down and babies craning their necks out of those nests was a part and parcel of any house. They were with you and you were with them. Probably this is how culture is lost and ethos vanish in these small closed houses called apartments or flats. We lose resilience and perseverance and have no time for such old lingering.
My daughter-in-law has hung two lantern sized cylindrical glass bird feeders with proper rests in our terraced garden as well as a ply board nest (for off seasons stay) and fills up these cylinders, which has small holes on all sides, with bajra. Flocks of sparrows visit the cylinders, cling to the rests all through the day and feed themselves by poking their beaks into those holes. We need to conserve nature.
The reason being the interception of waves by communication towers hung all over the country and the breeding of these tiny birds thus severely affected. The other reason could be the closed apartments in metros and these tiny tots have no place to sleep.
In the large houses with high ceilings these birds in households were usual with their cyclical hopping on floor picking insects intermittently with their beaks being a common site. Their flybys from outside veranda and windows with hay punched between their beaks and their fluttering around holes and perches to make those innocuous nests. Their eggs spoiling down and babies craning their necks out of those nests was a part and parcel of any house. They were with you and you were with them. Probably this is how culture is lost and ethos vanish in these small closed houses called apartments or flats. We lose resilience and perseverance and have no time for such old lingering.
My daughter-in-law has hung two lantern sized cylindrical glass bird feeders with proper rests in our terraced garden as well as a ply board nest (for off seasons stay) and fills up these cylinders, which has small holes on all sides, with bajra. Flocks of sparrows visit the cylinders, cling to the rests all through the day and feed themselves by poking their beaks into those holes. We need to conserve nature.
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