Starlings and sparrows sharing a nest?

[Ian_W]

Next door there is a hole in our neighbours wall.

 

Both starlings and sparrows are nesting in this hole. Is this common?

[Big J R]

Not in my book.

 

Sparrows, (house sparrows), usually find a crevice in the wall or eaves of a house.

 

Starlings are also communal flockers (!), but generally roost on the ground, marshes or even in trees.

[Ian_W]

both are taking nesting material and food into the same hole!!

[Eastside Urchin]

i can only imagine there are seperate areas/chambers inside the wall but anythings possible with birds.We have tits & sparrows nesting in the same bush in our garden,so communal nesting is not unheard of.How deep is the wall???

[Ian_W]

no idea how deep the wall is- but it looks odd with sparrows being pushed out the way by starlings as they are blocking the entrance and vice-versa.

[Dagger03]

Ian - the most likely scenario is that the sparrows started to nest there, but what will happen is that the starlings will eventually take it over.

 

We have had this on the corner of the house, where the sparrows usually nest - then along comes the starlings and the net result is that the sparrows are evicted.

[Ian_W]

Actually it was the other way around.

 

The starlings were there first. The sparrows then came along. It was fun to watch the starlings take bedding into the hole, only for a sparrow to take it out again!!

 

However the starlings seem to have won, having not seen the sparrows for a few days trying to visit the nest.

 

 

[Eastside Urchin]

I have been keeping an eye on sparrows during my travels and they seem to still be about in most of greater london.Places like Bexley,croydon,enfield etc all seem to have good populations.Obviously i can only gauge what i can see when i am stopped in traffic but i usually here a good few numbers when i am in these sort of areas.