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From: chris@leadsv.UUCP (Chris Salander)
Newsgroups: net.rec.birds
Subject: Re: House Finches
Message-ID: <548@leadsv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 12:55:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: leadsv.548
Posted: Mon Aug  5 12:55:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 20:26:59 EDT
Organization: LMSC-LEADS, Sunnyvale, Ca.
Lines: 37
Summary: Common birds crowd out others

In article <1203@ubc-cs.UUCP>, andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) writes:
> >	                 ... 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?
> 
>      I thought that House Finches were native to N. America, whereas House
> Sparrows (weaver finches) were introduced.  If this is right, I would doubt
> that the Finches are expanding their range.
>      If it is right, what direction are they spreading? (I won't ask where
> they are now, as I can look that up in my Birds of NA.)
>      --Jamie.
>     ...!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!andrews


	I think what is happenin here is something I have seen with several
other species in several other places.  Man is developing or urbanizing so
much real estate that the bird community is thrown into upheaval.  Certain
types of birds adapt more easily to living with man.  They start displacing
the less adaptable.

	As part of this conflict, I have noticed that birds that are willing
to flock together will do so and use their numbers to drive out other species
of birds that travel in smaller numbers.  I have even seen them drive away
birds much larger than themselves.  (E.g. blackbirds and chickadees driving
away robins).  I have then seen the larger birds (such as robins and magpies)
start going around in "gangs" of their own, whereas before they have only
travelled in couples, and groups not larger than 6.  Birds which have not
adapted to this urban warfare have been driven away.

	I bring this up after an article on House Finches, because they
have taken over my apartment complex (and my bird feeder).  In the four
plus years that I have been living there, they have gradually driven away
all the other species of birds except hummingbirds (too quick) and pidgeons
(too big).  I think what you are seeing is not so much a migration as an
alteration of the basic bird ecosystem.  This is unfortunate, since it
seems that the more common, plain birds are the ones that will survive.