When you think of sparrows, you probably picture small, brown birds hopping around your garden or crowding around the bird feeder. But did you know that sparrows are actually masters of feeding strategy? Their success across North America is partly thanks to a behaviour known as the 'producer-scrounger model' — a social foraging strategy that helps them survive in a wide range of environments.
Read on to find out more about this behaviour and how you can use this knowledge to help (or deter!) sparrows in your garden.
What Is the Producer-Scrounger Model?
The producer-scrounger model describes how some animals—like sparrows—use social strategies during foraging. In simple terms, producers are those that actively search for food sources, while scroungers watch and swoop in to share or steal the food discovered by others.
Sparrows are known to switch between both roles depending on their situation. According to a 2021 study in Behavioral Ecology, birds that are low on energy are more likely to adopt "scrounger" behavior, especially in winter when resources are scarce.
Why Sparrows Use This Strategy
Foraging as a group has several advantages:
Energy Efficiency: Scroungers save energy by letting others do the searching. This is especially useful during early morning cold snaps or after snowfalls.
Safety in Numbers: Staying in flocks reduces the risk of being preyed upon by hawks or cats.
Seasonal Surviving: In winter, this strategy helps them make better use of scarce food, especially seeds or bird feeders that are replenished by humans.
House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) are especially known for their boldness in this behavior, and urban environments have made them even better at scrounging. In cities, they take advantage of human leftovers—and even watch other birds to see where they're finding food.
How This Affects Your Yard
If you've noticed that sparrows flock to a bird feeder as soon as other birds arrive, you've seen this strategy in action. They're patient watchers and opportunistic feeders. This can cause problems if you're trying to attract a diverse mix of birds, as sparrows might dominate a feeder and crowd out chickadees, cardinals, and other species.
What You Can Do as a Bird Enthusiast
Here are a few practical tips to work with (or around) sparrow behavior:
Feed with Variety in Mind
Mix in seeds that sparrows prefer less, like safflower or nyjer. They tend to go for cracked corn or millet first. Native songbirds, like goldfinches or nuthatches, might still enjoy the other mix.
Use Selective Feeder Styles
Tube feeders with small ports or feeders with weight-sensitive perches can block out heavier birds (like sparrows) but allow smaller birds access.
Add Native Plants
Planting native grasses or berry-producing shrubs gives natural feeding options and reduces competition at feeders.
Spread the Feeders
Putting out multiple feeders spaced apart avoids crowding and reduces dominant sparrows from taking over everything.
What the Research Says
A 2019 study published in Ecology and Evolution showed how sparrows use observation to determine when to switch strategies between producing and scrounging.
Urban sparrows have been shown to scrounge much more than rural sparrows, as found in a long-term study by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Seasonal shifts, especially during nesting seasons, see a change in producer behavior, with more active foraging for insects to feed young birds.
Final Thoughts
Sparrows are fascinating little strategists. Their foraging tactics aren't just about survival; these behaviours demonstrate their adaptability in changing environments. By understanding the producer-scrounger dynamic, bird lovers can design their gardens to encourage balance, diversity and harmony among their feathered friends.
After all, the best bird-feeding experience is about more than just feeding birds — it's about learning from them, too.
