News: February 2004

A government minister has claimed that the modern penchant for the 'trendy garden' is partly responsible for the decline of house sparrows in urban areas.

Ben Bradshaw, the government Minister for Nature Conservation, has blamed the demise of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) on modern garden design trends and an explosion in the domestic cat population. Although this is an over-simplification of a notoriously complex issue, there may be an element of truth, particularly in the idea that increasingly 'designed' gardens leave less room for the weedy and untidy patches more likely to provide both nesting cover and food for birds like house sparrows.

BBC. 2004. Bid to save sparrows launched. Viewed on the web at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3505755.stm on February 22nd 2004.