Unusual Sparrow feeding habit! (1 Viewer)

Whilst waiting for the wife to finish shopping at my local ASDA store (about an hour!!!!)I noticed a few House Sparrows hopping from the floor into the radiator aperture on the Volvo parked opposite.I thought this unusual at best so got out my `car` binos from under the passenger seat.They were actually picking off and eating the dead bugs from the front of the radiator :eek!:!
Anyone else seen this?

Mike.

been observed in lots of species, not just sparrows, Mike. Pied wags and starlings are keen on it too. I've seen Blackbirds do it.

KnockerNorton said:

been observed in lots of species, not just sparrows, Mike. Pied wags and starlings are keen on it too. I've seen Blackbirds do it.

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Interesting. I've observed House Sparrows feeding in this way in the New World also, as well as Starlings and a number of native species. The ones I see most often in Nevada are Great-tailed Grackles--a big glossy American "blackbird"--cleaning smashed insects off the grills of cars at highway rest areas. Oddly enough though, I've found very little about the habit in the North American literature. The relevant species accounts (at least the ones I've skimmed through) in BNA-online--a standard source for North American birds--for example, tend to have little or nothing on the subject, so I guess there have been no formal studies here. How about in the Old World? Has anything much been written about it, do you know?

I observed a parent Willow Flycatcher doing something similar recently. It would go underneath a parked pickup truck, retrieve something, and then fly back to its nest. It did this continually while I observed it, at least 15 times. Must've had a lot of hungry mouths to feed!

I am not positive it was retrieving exclusively dead insects though. There were a lot of horseflies around, and they seem to be attracted to vehicles (I think they perceive them to be quadrupeds -- and they are attracted to anything with that shape). So there is a possibility it was catching them under their also.

Best,
Jim