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From: rsl@mtuxo.UUCP (r.little)
Newsgroups: net.rec.birds
Subject: Re: The Great Net Cleanup Part IIb
Message-ID: <863@mtuxo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Aug-85 19:33:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtuxo.863
Posted: Thu Aug  8 19:33:21 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 01:26:24 EDT
References: <697@gatech.CSNET> <849@mtuxo.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
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> REFERENCES:  <697@gatech.CSNET>
> 
> 	Now for a new poser: Are House Finches, which seem to be
> progressively spreading across the USA, any more "desirable" than
> House Sparrows?  Will the novelty of their color and song wear thin
> after they have taken over?  What is their impact on native fauna?

Several replies have mentioned House Finches.  Each seems to feel
that House Finches are a positive introduction to North American
avifauna, not competing with native species.  We had a pair nest in
an arborvitae at the corner of our NJ house in 1984, and in a wicker
basket on our front porch in April 1985 and in a Taxus yew along the
front of our house in June 1985.  A Song Sparrow had nested in that
yew in 1984, but I don't know where it went this year.  I've been
wondering if the House Finches displaced the Song Sparrows, or if
the Song Sparrows moved for other reasons and the House Finches filled
the void, or if the two could have co-existed.