Assessment of house sparrows passer domesticus damage to single and double winter cultivations under field conditions

The ultimate goal of this study is to find out the most suitable combinations of adjacent crops that reduce house sparrows damage. The experiments were established using single and double combinations of four wintery crops. Namely, soft wheat, hard wheat, sunflower, and barley. The double cultivations were designed by growing varying crops nearby a fixed one crop as follows 1- (soft wheat alone), (soft wheat- near sunflower), ( soft wheat near – barley), and (soft wheat near – hard wheat) 2- (barley alone),(barley- near soft wheat), (barley near - hard wheat), and (barely- near sunflower) 3-(hard wheat alone),( hard wheat- near barley), (hard wheat near – sunflower), and ( hard wheat near – soft wheat). The experimental results revealed the following; the damage percentage of house sparrows to soft wheat was 25.9 %, but when grown nearby sunflower, barley, and hard wheat the soft wheat damage reached 5.9 %, 25.9 %, and 33.3 %, respectively. In single cultivation of barley, house sparrows damage was 8.2 %, but when grown nearby soft wheat, hard wheat and sunflower, the barley damage reached 13.5 %, 1.7 % and 1.2 %, respectively. Single cultivation of hard wheat house sparrows damage was 0.0 %, while when grown adjacent to barley, sunflower, and soft wheat, the hard wheat damage reached 0.0 %,0.0 % 3.8 %, respectively. In single cultivation of sunflower, house sparrows damage was 20.2 %, while when grown nearby, barley, soft wheat , and hard wheat, the sunflower damage reached 9.5 %, 10.2 % and 36.3 %, respectively. Results obtaine from this study revealed the following: 1- sunflower could be grown nearby barley and / or soft wheat, but away from hard wheat; 2- barley could be grown nearby sunflower and /or soft wheat, but away from hard wheat; 3- soft wheat could be grown nearby sunflower, but away from hard wheat; 4- hard wheat could be grown nearby barley or sunflower, but away from soft wheat. These concomitant cultivations can be successfully practiced be small growers to protect their main crops from house sparrows attack naturally and effectively without using any pest control compounds and without any extra costs as well.