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Toronto Wildlife

July 22. As seen in my neighbours yard.

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Speaking of turkey vultures, I met my friendly neighbourhood buddy on my Friday walk through the Don, hanging about the old trestle bridge that crosses E. T. Seton Park.
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I also met some Japanese Beetles on the way, munching on a cherry tree (best guess I can give anyway) in Sunnybrook
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ImmenselyMental said:
... A couple of birds (sparrows?) inside the Harbourfront Centre:
Click to expand...
It's almost certainly House Sparrows that habitually get inside large buildings like grocery stores, etc.
They are an introduced species, so not protected like most other birds, and exterminators can legally get rid of them.
https://www.abellpestcontrol.com/en-ca/identify-pest/bird/house-sparrow/

Apart from being pests in that manner, their territorial aggressiveness led to a decline in the populations of native cavity nesting birds, particularly the Eastern Bluebird, but also others such as Tree Swallows. The House Sparrows attack and kill the other birds, or their nestlings or eggs in the case of the Bluebirds, despite the sparrows actually being the smaller bird.
(This is at Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Etobicoke.)
In the U.S., it's apparently common for even average people to buy widely available House Sparrow traps and exterminate them.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bird-B-...mbers-8-in-x-12-in-x-16-in-BMP-SP2C/205862537

But for whatever reason, the notion that House Sparrows are pests that should be exterminated doesn't seem to have caught on here in Canada. For example, in contrast to Toronto, where they seem to be everywhere in large numbers, "In Philadelphia... the birds have largely disappeared."
 
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SubHuman said:
It's almost certainly House Sparrows that habitually get inside large buildings like grocery stores, etc.
They are an introduced species, so not protected like most other birds, and exterminators can legally get rid of them.
https://www.abellpestcontrol.com/en-ca/identify-pest/bird/house-sparrow/

Apart from being pests in that manner, their territorial aggressiveness led to a decline in the populations of native cavity nesting birds, particularly the Eastern Bluebird, but also others such as Tree Swallows. The House Sparrows attack and kill the other birds, or their nestlings or eggs in the case of the Bluebirds, despite the sparrows actually being the smaller bird.
(This is at Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Etobicoke.)
In the U.S., it's apparently common for even average people to buy widely available House Sparrow traps and exterminate them.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bird-B-...mbers-8-in-x-12-in-x-16-in-BMP-SP2C/205862537

But for whatever reason, the notion that House Sparrows are pests that should be exterminated doesn't seem to have caught on here in Canada. For example, in contrast to Toronto, where they seem to be everywhere in large numbers, "In Philadelphia... the birds have largely disappeared."
Click to expand...
Right before I took my photo, I saw the sparrows feeding on food scraps on the floor, just as pigeons do.

I confirmed my photos were of a ring-billed gull and house sparrows, respectively, by using both Google Lens and the Visual Look Up feature in Apple Photos.
 
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