Today’s Bird On The Flax is the humble Sparrow. 🐦

House sparrows were introduced to NZ first in the mid 1860s. They soon became abundant and were said to be combating plagues of agricultural pests. By the 1880s, however, they were regarded as pests.

Photos through a window.

@Miraz A book that changed me: Providence of a Sparrow by Chris Chester

I delight in seeing these little creatures.

@Miraz Fantastic images! Such a beautiful bird 😄

@martinfeld 😊

@macgenie Sounds like an excellent book.

@Miraz The house sparrow is very abundant in my country too. The book I think of when hearing about sparrows is The Dark Half by Stephen King. @macgenie

@odd OK. I've never read any Stephen King (and don't plan to). Not a fan of horror.

@Miraz @macgenie @odd we have a family of sparrows that hang around in our garden - we love to see them. They are very argumentative and constantly squabble but stick together like a somewhat dysfunctional family.

@strandlines Sometimes pairs or groups of sparrows get into arguments on the deck just outside our lounge. They're hilarious.

@Miraz I love the humble sparrow, and I have seen then in so many varied habits. From the tropics to the Himalayas, there seems to be no environment that is too much for them.

@macgenie Thank you for mentioning this book. I'm going to look out for it.

@Miraz I have to ask you about your kit. What lens length are you shooting with? Those are great shots!

@zap Thanks for the kind words. It’s a Fujifilm X-T2. The only lens I ever really use on it is an XC50-230mm F4.5-6.70 ISII. I have a UV filter on the front to protect the lens, especially important as I'm so often at the beach where sand and salt spray may be a problem.

@Miraz That lens looks great on the X-T2. Nice telephoto lens. I agree witht the UV filters being necessary being so close to the beach!