Texas Fauna Project

House Sparrow

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Dr. Arnold is an ornithologist and an emeritus professor at Texas A&M University. He is a founder of the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas and the Texas Bird Records Committee, a long-time editor for Texas Christmas bird counts, and a prolific author (including contributing the guide, Birds of Texas). Here he describes the pattern of urbanization occurring throughout much of Texas, and how it is changing the bird life of the state, bringing in house sparrows, starlings, cardinals and blue jays, at the expense of grasshopper sparrows, dickcissels and others.