Piotr SKÓRKA 1* , Magdalena LENDA 2 , Janusz SKÓRKA 3 1 Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Mickiewicza 33, 31-120 Kraków, Poland, *e-mail: skorka@iop.krakow.pl (corresponding author) 2 Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland, e-mail: lenda.m@vp.pl 3 33-150 Wola Rzędzińska 530, Poland SUPERMARKETS – A WINTERING HABITAT FOR HOUSE SPARROW PASSER DOMESTICUS L. POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY (Pol. J. Ecol.) 57 3 597–603 2009 Short research contribution ABSTRACT: Animals often co-exist with humans inside buildings, however in birds such cases are only sporadically noted. In this paper we describe the occurrence of House Sparrows in supermarket interiors. The probability of House Sparrows presence was higher in larger markets and during winter period. The abundance and density of birds were positively and negatively related to the size of the supermarket, respec- tively. The birds were active at night. They foraged mainly along market shelves on bakery products, vegetables and cereals. We did not observe nesting inside market halls. The supermarkets seem to be hospitable wintering place for this species, how- ever they may also be ecological traps imprisoning the birds once they find their way in. Moreover, House Sparrows may contaminate food, thus, the presence of such species inside supermarkets should be controlled. KEY WORDS: Passerines, pest, wintering, feeding behaviour Many organisms occur alongside people and utilize human resources and products. Most such instances are known for insects (Ross 1994, Arbogast et al. 2000). Also ver- tebrates, primarily small mammals may oc- cur with humans in their buildings. In birds, many species inhabit man-made habitats. The best-known examples of bird species which are closely associated with humans are the Feral Pigeon Columba liva, House Mar- tin Delichon urbica, Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica, House Sparrows Passer domesticus and other species inhabiting urban areas (e.g. Tryjanowski and Kuczyński 1999, Hetmański 2007, Zieliński 2006, Rie- gert et al. 2007). However, the occurrence of these birds inside buildings is very rare. In this study we describe the inhabiting of the interior of supermarkets by House Spar- rows. This species is one of the most com- mon passerine occurring in urban areas. The House Sparrow nests in crevices in buildings, nest boxes or nests of other species. Recently, the decline of this species in many European towns has been noted (Summers-Smith 2000, Siriwardena et al. 2002, Böhner et al. 2003). We were interested in factors af- fecting the presence, abundance and density of this species inside the halls of supermar- kets, the resource use and behaviour of this species in such an unusual habitat. We made observations in winter 2005/2006 (from the beginning of December 2005 to the end January 2006) and spring/ summer 2006 (from the beginning of April to the end of June 2006). We chose a total of 28 journal 19.indb 597 journal 19.indb 597 2009-09-30 09:30:15 2009-09-30 09:30:15