His beak is hardening up, I can tell! Of course that "tummy down" squatty posture says he needs more flight time, he's tired, poor baby. He needs more flying time to build up his muscles & stamina but he's getting closer. You're both doing well! I think 2 or 3 weeks but I'm very out of practice judging without watching them fly & eat.
At least he doesn't seem to have "scooter sparrow" problems with crappy feathers. That means you've done a good job with feeding a good diet!! Kudos! We used to get house sparrows especially with weak long feather zones to the point they couldn't fly well at all. That was something I did, pluck out the damaged feathers. But of course that set them back a longer time & held up using their cage/aviary space. I wasn't popular for making that decission sometimes but IMO they needed it to survive more than a short time of very, very poor flying. I usually won than debate...of course, I'd already plucked out the poor feathers by that time, lol. Part of my prerogative as release supervisor...They all needed a "good" chance of survival or why did we bother? Even with non-natives...Euthanize on arrival or let them have a chance, a good chance, of making it back to "the wild" of suburban backyards where they'd likely be happy for years.
At least he doesn't seem to have "scooter sparrow" problems with crappy feathers. That means you've done a good job with feeding a good diet!! Kudos! We used to get house sparrows especially with weak long feather zones to the point they couldn't fly well at all. That was something I did, pluck out the damaged feathers. But of course that set them back a longer time & held up using their cage/aviary space. I wasn't popular for making that decission sometimes but IMO they needed it to survive more than a short time of very, very poor flying. I usually won than debate...of course, I'd already plucked out the poor feathers by that time, lol. Part of my prerogative as release supervisor...They all needed a "good" chance of survival or why did we bother? Even with non-natives...Euthanize on arrival or let them have a chance, a good chance, of making it back to "the wild" of suburban backyards where they'd likely be happy for years.