Factors influencing reproductive success of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), A study with reference to open nests at Jangareddigudem urban, India

Abstract

House Sparrow is a widely distributed man-follower bird. This passerine bird is a secondary cavity-nesting bird. This species is habituated to live in human settlements, and confined to make nests in human habitations in available cavities, especially on the roofs of thatched and tiled roofed houses. Replacement of such traditional houses with RCC buildings leads to the unavailability of nesting sites causing the decline of the House Sparrow population. Our current study is aimed to observe the nesting behavior and breeding success in Open nests in the study area, Jangareddigudem. We observed and studied the influence of various factors on the breeding success of House Sparrows viz., the direction of the Open nest, height at which the nest is placed from the ground, location of the nest from the roof edge, location from vegetation, and light illumination at the nest. We have applied Chi-square tests to study the effect of said factors on the clutch size, hatching success, fledging success, and as a whole overall breeding success. The most influencing factors on the overall breeding success of House Sparrows were found to be the light illumination followed by direction, then far/depth from the roof edge, then vegetation, and finally height at which the nest is made from the ground. With respect to individual reproductive parameters, clutch size was found to be influenced by light illumination, and both hatching and fledging success were found to be influenced by the height of the nests from the ground.