The Cheeky Chirpers Poem by Francis Duggan

The little plain house sparrows in feathers brown to gray
In parks and in the back-yards they chirp all through the day
By so few ever lauded and by so few ever praised
Their ancestry not Aussie though Aussie born and raised.

Whilst others birds are singing they merely chirp along
The cheeky little chirpers are birds without a song
The males from the females distinctive much darker around the face
Without them your back-yard would seem much a duller place.

They seldom do stop chirping to sunset from sunrise
The cheeky little chirpers not hard to recognize
In Spring on bush, shed rafters or under house eaves they build a nest of hay
Lined with feathers and three to six white brown blotched eggs the female bird does lay.

Though classified as songbirds the birds that cannot sing
Though their chirpings unmistakeable have a familiar ring
Quite plentiful within their range the birds everyone know
They chirp on trees and bushes under house eaves and in hedgerow.