Sparrow comes under which of the following categories:

The correct answer is Option (3) → Secondary consumers

In the figure the chain is plant → caterpillar → sparrow → vulture. The plant is the producer, the caterpillar eats the plant (primary consumer), and the sparrow eats the caterpillar, an animal that ate a plant, so it is a secondary consumer.

Option (1) Producers — Incorrect. Only the green plant makes its own food.

Option (2) Primary consumers — Incorrect. That is the caterpillar, which feeds on the plant.

Option (3) Secondary consumers — Correct. A consumer’s trophic level depends on what it eats. A sparrow is a primary consumer when it eats seeds, fruits and peas, but a secondary consumer when it eats insects and worms.

Option (4) Tertiary consumers — Incorrect. That is the vulture-like bird at the top, which eats the sparrow.

NCERT Extract:
Energy Flow – “… Organisms occupy a place in the natural surroundings or in a community according to their feeding relationship with other organisms. Based on the source of their nutrition or food, organisms occupy a specific place in the food chain that is known as their trophic level. Producers belong to the first trophic level, herbivores (primary consumer) to the second and carnivores (secondary consumer) to the third (Figure 12.2).”