House Bunting - in Moroccan folklore (1 Viewer)

House Bunting in Moroccan folklore

Recently on a thread here in Birdforum it was mentioned how tame House Buntings (Emberiza sahari) were breeding, resting and feeding in shops - with little or no regard to people. On one of my visits, a long time ago, I asked a kind gentleman why - and he gave me a rather vague answer (language problems for us was part of it!). I understood that they are somehow untouchable and that its thought to be good fortune to have them inside your home.

Can anyone tell the whole story?

In Morocco (and I think also in the rest of its range), there are two ecologically different populations: those which live far away from any human settlements in the south and south-east, and those which colonized the cities and started to expand their range northwards (they can be found now in every town and city in the northwest from Larache, Tangier, Tétouan, M’diq and even at Ceuta and Jbel Moussa just a few Km from Europe).

As to your question, I don’t have an answer right now, but i think this is only shows how well they adapted to live with humans over hundreds of generations. When this started? I think no one seem to know the answer.

However, here is my understanding: I think when the species started to live in villages and cities (first near their natural range), they found an empty niche and occupied it (although there is another seed-eater competitor, the House Sparrow) and the Moroccans were not bothered by their presence and over time probably some started seeing them as a good omen.

The case of White Stork (for which you can hear similar stories of ‘respect’, 'good omen'…etc.) is different because this species has always been here (its current range) and known to Moroccans since ages.