Cheeky Chirpers Poem by Francis Duggan

The house sparrows in the hedgerows always chirping at dawn and twilight as well as all day long
The small birds who are born to be chirpers condemned to live and die without a song
Their nest under house eaves not a work of beauty one might say an untidy ball of hay
That they line with lichen and tiny feathers their blotched brown eggs are a light pale to gray,
I cannot help but love these cheeky chirpers though many unkind things of them do say
The most familiar birds in the town garden one see and hear them chirping every day
In the town park they hang around picnic tables for crumbs of bread or tiny morsels of meat
With silver gulls they snatch up every tiny morsel that picknickers do throw them for to eat
With some people house sparrows are not popular and when referring to them call them out of name
But the majority speak of them with a certain fondness and say without them their backyard would not feel the same
Plain brown birds that are known to everybody within their range they never have been rare
I love them these endearing little chirpers within their range quite common everywhere
Perhaps the best known birds of all bird species the cheeky chirpers are known World-wide
Quite happy to live in urban surroundings and happy to live in the countryside.