THE TRIUMPHANT TALE of the HOUSE SPARROW JAN THORNHILL GROUNDWOOD BOOKS HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS TORONTO BERKELEY
Behold the most despised bird in human history You know the one It’s that small brown bird that boldly hops about on sidewalks pecking at dried-up bits of hot-dog bun The one that chirps monotonously and loudly outside your bedroom window The one you sometimes see flying around inside airports or shopping malls Yes that one the House Sparrow For more than ten thousand years this bird has lived alongside us and nowhere else And for just as long we have tried to get rid of it Yet worldwide at least half a billion House Sparrows still survive So why is it not yet extinct like the Passenger Pigeon or the Great Auk Part of the answer is that the House Sparrow has always been like us one of the most adaptable creatures on Earth
