Comparative study of food habits and seasonal variations in the food of adult House Sparrow Passer domesticus indicus in some rural and urban areas of Jammu Province.

Comparative study of food habits and seasonal variations in food of adult House Sparrow Passer domesticus indicus was done from 2009 to 2013 in some rural and urban areas of Jammu region. The analysis of stomach contents (usually including crop, proventriculus and ventriculus) was done from dead specimens of House Sparrow (47 specimens from rural areas and 20 specimens from urban areas) that were accidently killed. The prey taxa were identified by means of analyzing various body-parts in the remains of the diets of adult House Sparrow using a dissecting microscope and reference books as followed by Asokan et al. (2009 b). The animal matter, plant matter, grit particles, kitchen refuge were separated and weighed with electronic weighing balance. Total food mass in 47 samples of House Sparrows from rural areas was 49.98 gm by weight which again comprised of plant matter (37.27 gm by weight; 74.57 %), insect matter (5.04 gm by weight; 10.08 %), vegetables and kitchen refuge (0.47 gm by weight; 0.94 %), Grit (4.12 gm by weight; 8.25 %) and unidentified matter (3.08 gm by weight; 6.16 %). Of the total insect matter, body parts of insects of order Coleoptera were most frequently found followed by Diptera, Homoptera and Arachnids including larvae, pupae and adult. Plant matter was found varying from 65% (May-July) to 88.40% (August-October). Animal matter was found varying from 5.30% (Nov-Jan) to 17.9% (May-July). Vegetable and kitchen refuge were found varying from 0.70% (Aug-Oct) to 1.10% (Nov-Jan). Grits were found varying from 3.40% (Aug-Oct) to 12.40 (May-July) (12.40%) followed by 9.80% in February-April. Total food mass in 20 samples of House Sparrows from urban areas was 17.68 gm by weight which again comprises of plant matter (11.61 gm by weight; 64.51%), insect matter (1.32 gm by weight; 7.38 %), vegetable and kitchen refuge (2.54 gm by weight; 14.60 %), Grit (1.34 gm by weight; 7.54 %) and unidentified matter (0.86 gm by weight; 5.93 %).