In Ben Freeman’s home city, Seattle, the 2014 Christmas Bird Count totaled just 225 house sparrows within the city limits. “That’s the lowest total ever,” says Freeman, “and one piece of evidence that house sparrows may be declining.” Indeed, around the globe the bird is experiencing rapid and massive declines—in North America, Australia, and India, but especially in some towns and cities across Europe. Its decline generates few headlines, but the sparrow is now listed as a species of conservation concern in Europe; in Great Britain, it’s red listed. In the past half century, the United
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