Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2004, Síða 244

242 A HISTORY OF COLONIZATION AND CURRENT STATUS OF THE HOUSE SPARROW
(.PASSER DOMESTICUS) IN THE FAROE ISLANDS
1961; Joensen, 1966; Grand, 1966; Melt-
ofte, 1967).
Nólsoy, Hestur and Koltur
The first record of a house sparrow in the
Faroes was a single male observed on Nóls-
oy (10.3 km2) in 1900 followed much later
by other visits e.g. in 1949 and 1953 (An-
dersen, 1901; Williamson and Petersen,
1951; Williamson, 1954). However, it was
not until 1964 that the colonization of the
island began (Jensen and Kampp, 1997).
Since the late 1980s there has been a rela-
tively stable colony of 20-30 pairs, presum-
ably much owing to the provision of nest
boxes (Jensen, 1988, pers.comm.; Anon.,
1989).
Currently there are no house sparrows
breeding on Hestur (5.9 km2), though they
used to nest in a building that was pulled
down c. 1980 (Jóhan Niclassen according
to Jens-Kjeld Jensen, pers.comm.).
For Koltur (2.3 km2) with its two farm-
steads that are, however, no longer perma-
nently inhabited there is no breeding record
and the only observation is a flock of 13
house sparrows flying eastward over the is-
land in early October 1984 (Søren Sørensen
pers. comm.).
Streymoy
On Streymoy (374.1 km2) the house spar-
row first became established in Tórshavn,
by far the largest habitation on the Faroes.
The first few pairs bred in 1946 and 1947
and the house sparrow was considerably
more abundant in 1950 than in the preced-
ing years and “common” in 1953 (William-
son, 1948; 1954; Williamson and Petersen,
1951). Since then Tórshavn has remained
the stronghold of the house sparrow in the
Faroes. Relatively soon after the coloniza-
tion of Tórshavn it spread westwards to the
nearby (5-7 km) settlements Kirkjubøur
and Velbastaður; in the former there were
large flocks of sparrows in 1953 (Elisabeth
and Sámal Patursson, pers.comm.) and in
the latter it arrived after the war and in the
1960s occurred in large numbers (Danjál
Pauli Danielsen, pers. comm.). According
to unconfírmed information, it also oc-
curred further north at Vestmanna in 1953
(Williamson, 1954). Information on the
subsequent colonization of other settle-
ments on Streymoy, most of which today
hold colonies of house sparrows, is scanty.
Kaldbak, just north of Tórshavn, was oc-
cupied in 1961 (Eyðun Vang, pers.comm.)
and at about the same time Hvalvík and Sak-
sun further north were colonized (Joensen,
1966; see also Gibbs and Mawby, 1968).
In the geographically isolated settlements
of Saksun and Tjørnuvík the house sparrow
has been an irregular breeder and at Skælin-
gur (a small settlement not far from Kvívík)
it is known as a visitor but no breeding has
been confirmed (Arni Mortensen, pers.
comm.).
Eysturoy
The island of Eysturoy (286.0 km2), with
a large number of settlements was first
colonized in 1948 when 2 pairs (and sev-
eral in 1949) bred at Fuglafjørður and in
1949 (possibly 1948) 2 pairs were recorded
at Norðragøta (Nørrevang, 1950; for Fugla-
fjørður confirmed by Ragnvald Joensen,
pers.comm.). For the other parts of the