HOUSEHOLDERS are being encouraged to create suitable habitats to increase house sparrow numbers.
And a new guidance leaflet House Sparrows in Great Britain, funded by Defra and produced in partnership with the RSPB and British Trust for Ornithology, will help them do it.
The move follows a dramatic fall in house sparrow numbers from 12 million to seven million over the past 30 years.
Minister for Nature Conservation Ben Bradshaw said: "The friendly chatter of sparrows is a much loved part of British life. This is a very dramatic decline but it is not irreversible."
Copies of the leaflet are available on 0117 372 8312 or e-mail jamie.harwood @defra.asi.gov.uk
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