In my experience, not usually. I have a large flock of House Finches every winter, sometimes numbering close to or more than 150 birds. The House Sparrows also flock together, but the two species usually don't associate with each other in mixed species flocks away from feeding areas.

BN

there is a large hay shed with open sides and rafters just a hundred foot or so from my back yard. In the late fall and winter there are hundreds of small birds all roosting together up in the rafters at night. In the early morning you can hear a whole chorus of chirps and trills as they fly out in different directions, Any where from 2 to 3 dozen at a time show up here at the feeders. There are juncos and finches and sparrows and towhees and some eurasian doves. plus some others too. Lucky that most of the sparrows go elsewhere but i do get them in spells.
I have counted as many as twenty doves at a times and one day my neice helped me count juncos and we estemated about 50 at one time. though its usually a dozen or so at one time. There are some dead trees at the edge of the pasture
and the woodpeckers come in from that area. The jays and magpies come in from a patch of timber and oak brush. The jays and magpies love to swoop in and scare the little birds. but when they settle down to eat there will be 50 or 60 different bids all eating at the same time some on the feeders and some on the stumps and others on the ground. With almost 2 foot of snow on the ground now most of the ground feeders eat the spilt stuff below the feeders or off the stumps but some do eat at the feeders also.

Do not be too quick to dismiss the lowly sparrow.

I grew up on a dairy farm in N.E.Ohio and I have always had a passing interest in bird watching, however like most people I erroneously thought a sparrow is a sparrow, is a sparrow and lumped them into one of two broad categories, song sparrows and house sparrows, all of which were often considered at best a minor nuisance.

Last June I officially retired and took up nature photography as a retirement hobby. Over the summer I spent most of my time hiking the woods, meadows and swampy areas, but when the summer birds migrated last fall I then set up feeders and turned my attention to the birds that i could attract. I typically set my camera on a tripod zeroed in on a feeder or a ground feeding location, then I sit motionless with a remote shutter release in my pocket and snap pictures of the birds as they come in. In the course of taking 2 or 300 pictures a day, it goes without saying that I get a lot of shots that contain sparrows as well as the more desirable birds. Later while editing the photos I began to notice that many of the sparrows had what i thought were strange or unusual markings.

In early October my Mother presented me with a book called "Birds of Ohio" by McCormac & Kennedy, published by the Lone Pine Press (ISBN 13:978-1-55105-392-9)). From this book I discovered that their are over twenty different species of Sparrows common to Ohio, two of which have red heads such as you describe.

I then got another book called "The Sparrows of the united States and Canada published by Princeton University Press (ISBN 13:978-0-125-9897-1) in which they list over 62 species of Sparrows native to the U.S. & Canada. In addition, i learned that the House Sparrow is not native to North America and is officially not listed as a Sparrow, but rather they are listed as "Old World Sparrows" which includes another 37 species that have been introduced to North America, primarily from Europe.

From my personal experience I would challenge everyone, rather than seek ways to discourage the lowly Sparrow, take a closer look and you might be amazed at what you see, and if the Sparrows are consuming all the seed in your feeders, do as I have done, put up more feeders because all of God's creatures gotta eat.

Currently I am going through 5 30lb bags of wild bird seed a month, not to mention another two bushels of corn that i put in chicken feeders out in the meadow for the wild turkeys but then when i consider how many hours I spend watching those birds, it is really rather cheap entertainment.

I hardly dismiss house sparrow and starlings. They are essentially tough cookie that managed to out compete other birds. Unfortunately, like us, they are too successful, so they become a nuisance.

I do not lump house sparrow with the other sparrows.

In any case, I believe house sparrows are not really sparrows at all, but a species of finch. You do raise a good point, may be it is some form of sparrow.

A house finch made a nest in the awning in our back yard. When the male comes around he is always accompanied by a house sparrow. I see them together all the time.

I do not encourage invasive species in my yard, whether they be plant or animal. Native sparrows are always welcome, but house sparrows and starlings are not. I certainly would not put out more food to accommodate them, but rather do everything I can to discourage their presence. Likewise, I would not buy more land to give room for buckthorn, dandelions, etc. to grow.