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The Times of India
The Times of India
World
TOI World Desk

In 1851, New York released house sparrows to eat caterpillars damaging city trees; within 50 years, the birds had colonised nearly the entire continental US

In 1851, a small group of birds was released in Brooklyn to eat insect pests and protect the city's trees. The house sparrow, a familiar bird across Europe and Asia, was introduced to New York in the 1850s as part of efforts to establish European birds in North America, with some supporters also viewing the species as potentially useful for controlling insect pests.

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