The North American Breeding Bird Survey has found that between 1966 and 2015 the house sparrow population has plummeted 84 percent in the United States and Canada.

       Cornell University’s FeederWatch Program corroborates the decline.  Data collected volunteers taking part in this survey reveal that since 1995 the proportion of FeederWatch sites reporting house sparrows dropped by 7.5 percent.  In addition, the size of house sparrow flocks decreased some 22 percent.

       This does not mean the house sparrow is not facing extinction. Surveys indicate that 82 million house sparrows are still flying about the United States and Canada.

       This is good news, however, for those folks that for decades have been building, erecting and maintaining nesting boxes for bluebirds, tree sparrows, and many other native cavity nesting birds.  As they all know, too often house sparrows will out compete these birds for nesting sites.