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Mr and Mrs Towndrow, from Cardiff, met 30 years ago, having two children and amassing a number of pets including dogs, cats and even a sparrow.

“Urban birds” associated with humans, such as pigeons, European starlings and house sparrows, will likely continue to survive.

Fish and Wildlife Service celebrated delisting the San Clemente Bell’s sparrow and four plant species — the largest group delisting from population recovery in the 50-year history of the Endangered Species Act.

It is a backyard visited by darting sparrows and dignified blue jays lingering in the skeletal tree branches of spring.

For her, it was the common house sparrow, which she would observe before heading to her job teaching journalism at Loyola University New Orleans when it reopened in January 2006, five months after Katrina.