


Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This wide distribution of habitats used contributes significantly to its strong occurrence.

This means that its nest can be found in tree cavities and nest boxes, as well as in hedges, branch forks, and even on ledges on buildings, rocks, etc. The sparrow is known to be both a niche or cavity nester and an open nester. In the sparrow, a low occurrence of the blue pigment mixed with minimal influences of the red pigment results in a slightly greenish coloration. Depending on the intensity, ratio of both pigments to each other and layer of occurrence in the eggshell, the coloration can produce almost any color. One pigment has a blue base color, the other a red to brown base color. Where does the slightly greenish coloration of the eggs come from?Įgg color is determined by two pigments that are present to a greater or lesser degree in all birds. The dots or spots serve to blur the outline of the egg and camouflage it as best as possible against the background of the nest. The sparrow lays its eggs in open nests that are fairly easy to see. Typically there are 4 to 6 eggs per clutch, although rarely 3 or even 7 eggs can be laid. Instead, the typical appearance of the clutch is defined not only by the actual coloration, but also by the number of eggs it contains. Note: This relationship may exist in other bird species as well, but has only been documented for the sparrow through observation and study.Ī look into the sparrow’s nest usually does not show only one sparrow egg. Observations show that these animals have fewer offspring and lower life expectancies. In warm dry weather, on the other hand, the excess supply leads to too rapid development, which causes stress to the organism during development and also later in life. In cold and wet weather, a larger egg provides more nutrient reserves for better chick development. For while it is generally assumed that a larger egg offers better development opportunities, the state of knowledge is different in the case of the house sparrow. Science now believes it knows the reason for this: By adjusting egg size to the weather, sparrows provide their offspring with optimal conditions to start life. Thus, even within one year with one and the same female, the volumes of the eggs can vary by up to 50% in each of the 2 to 3 clutches per season. Because observations show that the size of the eggs can vary greatly. However, this figure should be treated with some caution. The average size of sparrow eggs is 15 x 22 millimeters with a weight of about 3 grams. spots partly extremely dense up to the complete covering of the ground color.Sparrow eggs have an elongated-oval shape with the typical shape known from the hen’s egg:Ĭolor can vary significantly from animal to animal, but remains largely constant per animal from egg to egg: Where does the slightly greenish coloration of the eggs come from?.
