House sparrow (<i>Passer domesticus</i>) nesting behaviours in a rural habitat of the western Himalayas

Abstract

This article presents different nesting strategies of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) during the 2018 breeding season in a rural area of the outer western Himalayas of Uttarakhand state, India. These observations show house sparrows breeding in a usurped nest of red-rumped swallows (Cecropis daurica), probably the first such record from the western part of India. The unusual use of an anthropogenic object, a shoe, as a nest site was observed. However, more generally, a preference for secondary cavity-nesting strategies associated with the traditional, concrete, and modified traditional houses was found. Behavioural strategies associated with these breeding records have also been reported in this study, showing short-term adaptation or behavioural flexibility of the house sparrow to cope with intra- and interspecific pressures in the breeding season.

Keywords

• Secondary cavity nesters
• anthropogenic object
• nest usurpation
• nest-site selection
• nesting behaviour