--- title: City birds: sparrows, starlings, swifts, crows and peregrines on tall buildings — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «City birds: sparrows, starlings, swifts, crows and peregrines on tall buildings», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A city is full of bird homes if you look like a bird: roofs and wall gaps are caves, churc --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / City birds: sparrows, starlings, swift… # City birds: sparrows, starlings, swifts, crows and peregrines on tall buildings Lesson 369 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/0/) — A city is full of bird homes if you look like a bird: roofs and wall gaps are caves, church towers are cliffs, café tables are feeding grounds and street lights are a second sunset. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/1/) — Each city bird uses the city its own way: sparrows hop round the crumbs, starlings swirl over the roofs at dusk, swifts scream over the chimneys in summer, crows gather in winter roosts and peregrines hunt pigeons from the cathedral tower. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/2/) — Stand on a bridge at dusk in winter and watch a cloud of starlings twist like smoke: no bird is in charge, each one just copies the few birds closest to it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/3/) — City life changes birds too: some lose their nest holes when old buildings are mended, and many sing higher, louder or at night so they can be heard over the traffic. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/4/) — House sparrows have lived beside people for about 10,000 years, since the first farms with spilled grain, and nest in gaps in roofs and walls, which many new buildings do not have. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/5/) — In London sparrow numbers fell by about two-thirds in a few decades, and scientists still argue why. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/6/) — Sparrows dust-bathe to clean their feathers: dust soaks up extra oil and makes life hard for feather mites, and they also bathe in puddles and sunbathe with wings spread. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/7/) — Tens of thousands of starlings fly together before roosting in shapes called murmurations; each bird watches about 7 nearest neighbours, and a falcon finds it hard to pick one bird out. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/8/) — Starlings copy other birds, phones, car alarms and even human words, and Mozart kept a pet starling that sang a tune from his piano music, a little changed. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/9/) — About 100 starlings were let go in New York's Central Park in 1890 and 1891, and now there are many millions in North America that take nest holes from native birds; the story that a Shakespeare fan did it for the plays is still argued. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/10/) — Common swifts can stay in the air for about ten months without landing; they eat insects and drink in flight and are thought to sleep while flying high up. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/11/) — Swifts nest under roof tiles and come back to the same hole after wintering in Africa. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/12/) — Swifts have tiny feet with all four toes able to point forward for hooking onto walls; their name Apus means without feet, and with long wings they find it hard to take off from flat ground. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/13/) — In winter crows gather in roosts of hundreds or thousands at night for safety and perhaps to share news of food, and they often gather calling around a dead crow, which scientists think teaches them about danger. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/14/) — Peregrine falcons nest on tall buildings, bridges and churches that look like cliffs to them, eat mostly city pigeons, and in a hunting dive can go over 300 kilometres an hour, the fastest animal on Earth. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/16/) — City birds often sing higher, louder or at quieter times like night to be heard over traffic; city great tits sing higher notes than forest ones, and in San Francisco birds sang more softly in the quiet lockdown. - ← previous: [Big wild animals in cities: wild boar, deer, coyotes, monkeys and leopards](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/368-big-wild-animals-in-cities-wild-boar-deer-coyotes-monkeys-and-leopards/) - next →: [Minibeasts in the house: house spiders, silverfish, woodlice, moths and cockroaches](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/370-minibeasts-in-the-house-house-spiders-silverfish-woodlice-moths-and-cockroaches/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)