Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 11:38:58 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Re: Salt Lick for Sparrows? MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Rick Sussman wrote: > What you witnessed is "mortar feeding", whereby the birds, usually members of > the weaver finch family, will cling to vertical masonry walls while shuffling > their feet along in a sort of stilted locomotion trying to free any clinging > insects and/or larva from the surface for the purpose of feeding. This is why there are so many house sparrows, and why masonry houses last so long. The insects in the masonry eat the tiny clay particles (yes, there is nutrition in them -- that's why nutritionally-deprived people occasionally feel a compulsion to eat clay). As they eat the particles, they leave small tunnels through the bricks or concrete block of the structure, weakening it exactly the same way that termites weaken wood. But unlike wood, masonry is too dense to be penetrated by chemicals. Thus, if not for the weaver finches, there wouldn't be a masonry house more than 15 years old left standing anywhere in the country. This is the one and only beneficial behavior of these disagreeable birds. Sherry Peruzzi Howard County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================