Residents of the Americas may find this hard to believe, but the ubiquitous, adaptable House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is declining in its native lands. We should all be concerned about this, if not out of love for this prosaic passerine then because the sparrow may very well be a signal species for more encompassing environmental threats. World Sparrow Day is celebrated annually on March 20th to raise awareness across the globe about the decline of the House Sparrow and how it impacts all of us.

We’ll be celebrating World Sparrow Day 2012 by running some of our favorite House Sparrow posts. Join us by sharing in the comments your best posts or photos of House Sparrows. Or just leave a kind word for a much-maligned bird whose steady presence we take for granted!

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.