Lunch and a new bird: Tree Sparrow

House Sparrow

2008 Holiday in New South Wales Trip Report #5

From Narrandera we travelled on towards Wagga Wagga, arriving in time for lunch. We sought out a shady spot in the local Botanic Gardens and soon were enjoying our picnic lunch. As I was eating I noticed that there were quite a few sparrows nearby.

The sparrows sounded different – not like the House Sparrows at home. I quickly zoomed in on two of them with the camera. A close examination of the photo proved correct; I had just added a new species to my Australian list, the introduced Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Unfortunately this does not qualify as an additional to my Life List because I had previously seen these sparrows near the River Kwai in Thailand. Never mind – it was a good sighting as I believe that they are not all that common outside Victoria.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow