These tiny gregarious little birds would wake up the entire neighbourhood by their loud chirping as they would congregate on a particular tree every morning at the precise time! No alarm, no nothing. They would fly and meet and greet each other, as their chirping crescendo would get higher and higher and fly in different directions till they congregated in the evening on the same tree. These are sparrows, those little wonderful birds who made the crevices on the roof tops or corners of every home. They were the uninvited guests, always chirping away to glory! Those days don’t exist anymore as our city has lost the tree covers and is more concretised. We find them only in some pockets of old settlements. People don’t even separate the grains manually as the sparrows would gleefully feed on the leftovers. Home makers would voluntarily feed these birds. There are no grains to be cleaned as they are ready made at factories. Our little friends flew away for good to the outskirts of cities. On this World Sparrow Day, let us understand the need of our little fliers as they keep the pests away and help our farmers. Let us keep birdbaths and keep a grain filled feeder and invite our avian friends all the year round!