Feeding time for hungry young sparrows

The modern theory is that you should continue feeding wild birds throughout the year and not stop during the breeding season, which was the earlier advice.

I’ve discovered this gives you a good idea of the breeding success of the various species in the garden.

I have a twiggy branch screwed to my bird table. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a juvenile house sparrow perched on the branch. It squatted down, whirred its wings, put its head back and opened its beak very wide. This is classic food-begging behaviour. I’m sure it was also making plaintive noises indicating how hungry it was, but I couldn’t hear these through the window.