I have never noticed sparrows eating dandelion leaves before. Here is a Harris sparrow and a White-crowned Sparrow doing so. I thought they would only eat seeds. What does the fresh leafy greens do for them? Anything to do with mating or nesting?
Thanks for looking and any responses to this
Thomas
PS sorry for the poor picture quality on the Harris'
When I used to breed finches and British birds we always made sure our birds had access to chickweed, lettuce, freshly sprouted seeds, new grass seed heads and a mix made with crushed hard boiled eggs. So I think this behaviour is probably due to feed young chicks in the nest. The chicks need something that is easy to digest and something that the adults can feed easily and hard seed just won't do it. Our birds used to eat some some greens at other times but at nesting season it was a must. Since we try to imitate nature when raising aviary birds I would think wild birds do this also.