Country Mouse Studio: House Sparrows are that Common Cute Little Brown Bird

Yes, I realize that many people don't like sparrows. They take over birdhouses and feeders, chase away other birds, and can be downright pesky. I used to agree.

That changed when I found myself in a strange town with a lot of time to kill—and this was back before cell phones gave us endless ways to fill an empty afternoon.

I would go out for lunch, and there they were. They accompanied me on walks around town. There was always one or two hopping between parked vehicles, darting under tables and chairs, or simply keeping a watchful eye on whatever was going on.

The secret, I discovered, is to stop and actually watch them.

Sparrows are some of the most cheerful little creatures you can encounter. Well… except for a Golden Retriever.

We quickly became friends. I started saving my crumbs for them, and they seemed to know it. If I ate my lunch in the car, they would sit on the hood and wait. If I ate at a table, they happily hopped around my feet and chairs, chirping their sweet little songs as if they were part of the lunch party.

And the longer I watched, the more I began to notice something else.

Sparrows seemed to have surprisingly human-like relationships with one another. They bickered, flirted, showed off, followed each other around, got annoyed, made up, and occasionally seemed to have absolutely no idea what the other one was talking about.

Of course, back then I had no way of proving any of this. Today, everyone has a phone, and suddenly we have an endless supply of photographs and videos showing that perhaps I wasn't imagining it after all.

So, after spending all that time watching these little birds, I've come to see them quite differently.

Here are a few of my observations about the surprisingly entertaining world of sparrows…