Study on the population of House Sparrow Passer domesticus in urban and rural areas of Punjab

House Sparrow Passer domesticus (L.) population was monitored in the year 2013 in relation to the total bird diversity in 149 villages belonging to 18 districts of Punjab falling under five agro-climatic zones i.e. Sub-mountain undulating zone (Gurdaspur), Undulating plain zone (Ropar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Mohali), Central plain zone (Taran Tarn, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Patiala), Western plain zone (Ferozepur, Mukatsar, Faridkot) and Western zone (Moga, Bhatinda, Barnala). Observations on House Sparrow were taken in 28 selected villages out of the total initially surveyed 149 villages. During the study period out of 64 birds species identified, a total of 33 and 47 bird species were observed (including commonly found bird species at both types of study areas) at urban and rural areas respectively. Large flocks (>250) of House Sparrow were observed in village Varhing Dhania (Mukatsar) and Tangra (Amritsar). Medium size flocks of House Sparrow (60-90) in Udaykaran (Mukatsar), Thothian, Chauhan (Amritsar). In addition, small sized flocks of House Sparrow (10-25) were regularly observed in the selected villages i.e. Gaunspur (Ludhiana), Malian (Amritsar), Littan, Pandori, Ramgarh (Kapurthala), Mirjapur (Mohali). Relative percentage abundance of House Sparrow in rural residential areas of selected villages ranged from 0.09 to 93.0%. Highest relative percentage abundance of House Sparrow was observed at village Varhing Dhania (93.0%) of Mukatsar followed by Rasoolpur (84.17) of Ferozepur district of Punjab. Relative percentage abundance of House Sparrow in rural agricultural field areas ranged from zero to 60.2%. In the urban residential areas House Sparrow was observed at only two locations out of the total seven locations studied. The relative percentage abundance of House Sparrow in urban residential areas was highest at Mukatsar (41.9 %).