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Widespread local house-sparrow extinctions

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Agricultural intensification is blamed for the plummeting populations of these birds.

Abstract

House-sparrow populations have declined sharply in Western Europe in recent decades1,2, but the reasons for this decline have yet to be identified, despite intense public interest in the matter. Here we use a combination of field experimentation, genetic analysis and demographic data to show that a reduction in winter food supply caused by agricultural intensification is probably the principal explanation for the widespread local extinctions of rural house-sparrow populations in southern England. We show that farmland populations exhibit fine-level genetic structuring and that some populations are unable to sustain themselves (sinks), whereas others act as sources.

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Figure 1: Annual productivity, survival rates and effect of supplementary feeding on rural house-sparrow populations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Farmland Bird Group, Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK

    David G. Hole, Mark J. Whittingham & John R. Krebs

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Swansea, UK

    Richard B. Bradbury & Guy Q. A. Anderson

  3. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, SG19 2DL, Bedfordshire, UK

    Patricia L. M. Lee

  4. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Dunedin House, Edinburgh, EH4 3TP, UK

    Jeremy D. Wilson

Authors
  1. David G. Hole
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  2. Mark J. Whittingham
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  3. Richard B. Bradbury
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  4. Guy Q. A. Anderson
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  5. Patricia L. M. Lee
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  6. Jeremy D. Wilson
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  7. John R. Krebs
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David G. Hole.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Hole, D., Whittingham, M., Bradbury, R. et al. Widespread local house-sparrow extinctions. Nature 418, 931–932 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/418931a

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