house sparrow behaviour (1 Viewer)

I know from past experience that house sparrows eat vegitation,my father always had to put black cotton on his young lettuce plants,but this year has been unusual on my patio.for several years now I have grown chillies for the kitchen and have had no problem with the sparrows.This year however they have attacked the leaves of the new plants and are now stripping the leaves of the older plants.I watch their acrobatics as they try to reach the leaves from the slender stems,they do not touch the chillies however so it´s not a problem for me.I have not tried to eat the leaves myself but does anyone know why they should like the leaves this year and not touched them in the past.This happens every day,mainly in the late afternoon.Any information would would be welcome.

Could just be this year the sparrows are finding it much more tougher to find food. Do you have any feeders up? If you haven't it maybe a good idea as it could distract them from the plants .

I don´t have any feeders as I have found in the past that the birds here in Spain ignore them,but my neighbour feeds his dog on his patio and the sparrows eat the dog biscuits.This may be the reason that they are eating the chillie leaves as he has only had the dog in the past 6 months.Maybe they are getting moisture from the leaves to combat their thirst,it just seems strange or is there any vitamins etc; in the leaves.I appologise for my late response due to a computer glich.During the winter I feed the birds at various places in the countryside and I find that loose feeding on the gound together with nuts placed in trees seems to be the best method and that after a couple of days the birds find the food.