Sparrow Team are currently busy trying to catch House Sparrows but will update as soon as possible.....
Sparrow drawing by ©Heleen
Hello I’m Heleen. I’m a student at ‘Wageningen University and Research’ in the Netherlands. Currently I’m in my master program, studying Forest- and Nature conservation. My main passion are bats, which is also the field of research in which I specialize. However I have also done some smaller projects regarding sparrows and swifts in urban areas.
I have always thought the sparrow is a really interesting bird to study. As it is a species that thrives in a lot of places around the world. So when I saw a possibility for my internship to go to Lundy and help as a field assistant at a sparrow research, I was more than thrilled.
For the coming weeks I will be helping Bea with her research. It is my first time capturing and analysing sparrows (or birds in general) and I have already learned so much from Bea. Whether it is setting up mistnets to capture the sparrows or analysing the individual birds based on their colour rings. I hope to learn even more when I’m here.
I will also be doing my own research, which will be based on sparrow behaviour. I will be using video data to analyse parental behaviour connected to the partner choices female sparrows make.
Next to my research, I am also enjoying the beautiful nature here. Trying to draw as much of its wildlife as I can see. And of course one sparrow each day.
It’s my first time being on Lundy and I have an amazing experience so far.
House Sparrows Village. ©Bea
Hi! My name is Bea, and I’m a second-year PhD student at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, studying the house sparrow population on Lundy Island. You might wonder why a Dutch PhD (I’m actually Portuguese!) is studying sparrows on Lundy when they are (or used to be) so common everywhere. The reason is that the Lundy population is quite special. The island is far enough from the mainland to prevent most sparrows from migrating. This isolation allows us to monitor the entire population very closely, including the breeding season—a dataset that has been collected for over 25 years. In fact, if you’ve seen the sparrows around, you probably noticed they are all colour ringed. That makes individual identification much easier (feel free to let me know the colour rings of sparrows you may have seen during the day)!
My project focuses on the microbiomes of these birds. A microbiome is a community of microorganisms—such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses—that live in an organism. They can be either helpful, if you think about the gut microbiome and its essential role in digestion, or harmful. Microbiomes can be found in the gut, but also the mouth, skin, feathers and even the reproductive system. While we know quite a bit about how microbiomes affect human health, much less is known about their role in wild animal populations. So, my aim is to understand how the microbiome can influence the ability of birds to reproduce and survive. Ultimately, I hope this research will contribute to the conservation and long-term health of wild populations.