Tree Sparrow Project - introduction and staff

30 years ago Tree Sparrows were a common sight on lowland farmland throughout much of the UK. Unlike their more widely known cousin, the House Sparrow, Tree Sparrows are shy of people in Northern Europe, and are typically found on farmland, breeding in holes in trees, dense bushes or holes in farmland buildings. In the winter they form large flocks and forage in stubble fields and farmyards. Sadly, along with many other farmland birds, the numbers and sizes of these flocks have dwindled over the last 30 years and the Tree Sparrow is now red-listed as a species of high conservation concern (Gregory et al 2002), having declined by 95% in the period 1970-1999.

Former project director, Guy Anderson,
checking a nest box.

Until recently, Tree Sparrows had not been the subject of any research aimed at understanding the causes of the decline and suggest remedial conservation and land management measures. One of the roles of this project was to collate environmental and management data from colonies currently or recently surveyed by amateur ornithologists, in order to identify any factors consistently associated with either persistence, or decline and extinction of monitored colonies.

While the species has been in decline nationally, the number of Tree Sparrows nesting at Rutland Water Nature Reserve has shown a steady increase. There are three distinct colonies within the reserve and others apparently beginning to form. This provided us with a unique opportunity to study this attractive bird and in particular to try to determine why the species appears to be thriving here. Before the start of the project, staff and volunteers at the reserve erected and maintained nest boxes, monitored nests and colour-ringed young birds on a regular basis.

Tree Sparrows (with other species)
feeding outside the Visitor Centre

This preliminary study led us to suspect that the success of Tree Sparrows at Rutland Water was due to three factors:

• a managed programme of habitat provision;
• the provision of nest boxes to promote colonial nesting;
• year-round supplementary feeding.

The present project is working in collaboration with the Leicestershire Rutland Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers, English Nature and Anglian Water to determine the role of supplementary food provision in maintaining the large and increasing breeding colony at Rutland Water.

Overall, the project aimed to increase our understanding of the role of declining food supplies in causing the long-term population decline on agricultural land, and the potential of food supplementation to aid maintenance and recovery of remaining colonies.

	Project Staff Rob Field (left) and Guy Anderson (right) directed the project
	Nancy Ockendon and Liz Mackley worked as the project's Research Assistant

Also working on the project were a team of Wildlife Trust volunteers. Pictured here are Shirley Hope and Ron Follows, returning after a morning spent monitoring breeding progress in the many nest boxes. Other volunteers who worked on the project included David Coles, Barrie Galpin, Martin Kerman, Ian Matson and Steve Norman.

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