Come Now, Let Us Reason Together

You may remember my post from a while back on the English, or House Sparrow, where I posted this first picture and wrote about how they are gregarious, chatty, and social. All true. But there is a dark side to this bird that is shocking. And shortly after my post, I found out the awful truth from Bird Girl. To see the specific post that she guided me to on her awesome blog, CLICK HERE. I warn you, it's not for the squeamish. Less than 200 years ago, there were no House Sparrows in America. They were brought here in the 1850's, but are now one of the most prevalent birds in the country. They are pretenders to the throne in more than one aspect. First, they are not native American birds, and they are not really a song sparrow at all, but a Weaver Finch. You can see that it has a thick, finch-like bill. For comparison, my picture below shows a real little song sparrow. The English House Sparrows in our yards are about 40th generation Americans, yet we still call them aliens, and they are not a protected species like our other songbirds. There's a reason for that. As I said before, I have been enchanted with their chatty, gossipy groups, and their communal dust baths. But the dark side to this bird is it's split personality. They are relentless killers, but that's not even the worst part. Most wild animals kill for food or self-preservation, but this English Sparrow kills for no reason. Yes, NO REASON. They will work relentlessy to destroy other baby birds and eggs, even when they have their own perfectly good nest. They do not kill for food or nests. They just seem to enjoy killing. They have been known to kill adult Bluebirds as they are sitting on their eggs, and they are partially responsible for the near extinction of bluebirds. The males and females will even kill their own babies. So I ask you this. Animals and people always do things for reason. Or do they? Perhaps even when there's no reason at all, there's a reason.

"But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their law: 'They hated me without reason.' John 15:24,25"