The Benefits of Spot a Sparrow!

March 13, 2015 10:48 am

The Spot a Sparrow project aims not only to gain useful scientific data, but also to help promote an interest in Maltese nature. Indeed, people have been getting involved throughout the community, and a wide range of benefits are becoming apparent.

Four months since the launch of Spot a Sparrow, we’ve had hundreds of roost reports submitted across Malta and Gozo, as well as receiving endless stories and photos. Sparrows certainly appreciate the bird feeders being put out for them, and probably also love being admired for their beauty! But it’s not just Sparrows that benefit from this project, people do too!

To find out more, we spoke with Jennifer Saliba, whose 6 year-old son has taken part in the project with our partner, the Inspire foundation. Inspire’s Outreach programme provides specialised educational and social plans to meet the needs of autistic individuals. For Saliba’s son, this meant going on group outings to parks, where they learned to identify and count Spanish Sparrows, as well as learning lots of information about them. Proud that he now ‘knows more about sparrows’, he is confident in identifying males from females by their distinctive ‘masks’ and colouring, as seen in the photos below.

This hands-on interaction with nature provides benefits beyond education, also impacting on health, happiness and general well-being. Saliba’s son particularly appreciated being ‘out in the open air’ and would gladly recommend the project to others because, he claims “it was fun and birds are nice to look at”. Indeed, his parents have witnessed his excitement in taking part in the project, being told all about it each day. In fact, they now all know and care more about this little bird they may have barely noticed before!

If you’ve been enjoyed taking part in Spot a Sparrow, we’d love to hear your story. So please don’t hesitate to get in touch via our contact us page!

Photos by Jennifer Law.