Authors > Karen Pryor > Author Voices

sparrows

Ordinary street sparrows are worth watching sometimes. Last winter I saw a flock in the coldest weather, sitting on a roof edge in my neighborhood. A male was begging, like a chick, in front of a female. Huh? His mother, maybe? She moved. He followed. I'm hungry, I'm hungry. She lunged forward, grabbed his lower leg in her beak,and slammed him upside down against the edge of the roof and dropped him. We're all hungry, kid. Leave me alone. Wow! He flew into the nearest tree and thought that over. Yesterday I noticed a male English sparrow creeping up an oak tree prying into cracks in the bark exactly like a nuthatch. Nuthatches are looking for grubs when they do that, I know. What are YOU doing,I wondered. You're supposed to be a seed eater. A few minutes later, now half way up the tree, he dropped to the ground and yes, he had a biggish caterpiller in his beak. He had to hammer it quite a bit to make it softer but by gosh he finally swallowed it and flew off, to the nest I guess. Happy surprise for the kiddies? Anyway obviously they're not just seed eaters.