The house sparrow is still probably the commonest bird in Spain with some 10 million pairs, and although they are certainly not threatened as they are in, say, Britain which has lost 5 million pairs in the last 30 years, some areas have shown alarming trends. The birds are less and less common in Madrid and have seen a 90% fall in the orange orchards of Valencia. Crónica Verde

The poet Miguel Hernández described sparrows as the “los gorriones son los niños del aire” – the children of the air,