The most familiar and enigmatic garden birds have been feeding on nothing again. There is something we recognise as human-like in their song, for they are the only birds around exchanging dialogue, as cheep answers cheep. Only one cavity was ever occupied by sparrows in those first springs, and then the box was abandoned – until now. Three pairs hacked at the Russian vine next door for bedding, flying off with full beaks to three points of the compass. Sparrow lives alternate between nesting, chattering and feeding – and I still don’t feel I understand our nearest neighbours.

Source: The Guardian April 12, 2018 04:30 UTC