A comparative study on the nesting materials used by House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) for Open and Inbox nests

Abstract House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a bird species connected to humans, widely distributed in most of the human settlements. They build nests in the crevices of our homes. The recent changes in house design minimized the crevices to build the nests and lead to habitat loss. The nest boxes are the alternative ways to re-establish the decreased House Sparrow population. We investigated the usage of nesting materials by House Sparrow with reference to construction of Open nests and Inbox nests in our study area. Because of its flexible attitude, it utilizes all the available materials for nest construction. In our study area at Jangareddigudem, we have examined about 100 Inbox nests and 40 Open nests. There are around 29 varieties of nesting materials used by Sparrows in the examined Inbox nests and around 27 varieties in the Open nests. Dūrvā grass found to be the major component of all the analyzed nesting materials in both Open and Inbox nests that constituted 43% and 36.5% respectively. The other structural materials such as coconut fibre (3.5%) and broom fibre (6%) were found to be more in Inbox nests. Synthetic fibre was more in Open nests (3.7%). We found significant differences between the Open and Inbox nests with respect to quantum of each nesting material type used, weight of the nests and time taken for nest construction by House Sparrow.