The tweet of the sparrows

It was such a common sight to see sparrows around the window sills or in the verandah, pitter-pattering away, looking for grains, food. Small and cute looking, their chatter used to be so soothing to the ears. And now we hear that this most commonly occurring bird, which we did not even give a second glance are now nearing extinction. Indeed, look around yourself anew instead of the smartphone and we will realise that there are really no sparrows to be seen or heard; we see only crows, pigeons and of course, the omnipresent stray dogs. When did these small birds disappear?

We are solely responsible for their nearing extinction. These birds are essentially house birds and they need cavities within the houses we build to nest. Such cavities are no longer a part of the new construction. Rapid urbanization has felled trees; fields have more pesticides than grains to feed on. Lifestyles have changed drastically over the past few years and this has impacted the existence of house sparrows directly.

There is one man - conservationist Mohammed Dilawar and he started the practice of observing March 20 as World Sparrow Day since 2010. How many of us even knew this day had passed three days ago? Dilawar alleges that mindless urbanisation was leading to a loss of the birds’ natural habitats. With summer approaching, Mr. Dilawar suggested people should hang wooden bird nests in balconies and put out a pot of water for the winged visitors.

If we do not look after these animals and birds, we humans will also face extinction on this earth. And hope people start “looking” at things around them, rather than watch everything on their phones! Life will go by and we will realize it too late. Lets bring the real twitter back…..