The chirping of sparrows is a key human noise, a key human experience.
the essential noise of humanity (humanness)
most human of noises
the sparrow is the human soul. (id?)
throwing croissant crumbs/bits of chip/whatever to the sparrows. Chirping among the roof-tiles. dust-bathing.
I’ve been very conscious of sparrows since they disappeared from this part of London a few years ago. There were lots at the hotel in Egypt – the noise is so cheerful, and so deep-down familiar. People think of ‘chirping’ as a generic bird-noise, but actually it’s not, it’s very specific to sparrows.
Sparrows are only found in association with people – their original habitat is unknown.
From a US website: “Perhaps the most citified of birds, this import’s incessant chattering, quarrelsome disposition, and abundance about human habitations distinguish it from our native sparrows. Actually, it is not a sparrow at all, but a weaver finch.” Surely it would be more true to say that American sparrows are not sparrows at all.
Catullus. Some haiku? Who killed cock robin.
There’s a poem in there somewhere.