FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Re: House Sparrow problem...

[j arnold <alee04lacebark@xxxxxxxxx>]

You have probably already received plenty of replies,
but thought I'd tell you our observations of sparrows
and nestboxes. The male never gives up even if you
take the nest and eggs. He gets ever more aggressive
as the season progresses. Once a sparrow has gotten a
mate, the best thing is to shoot him if possible,
which you probably can't do in the Highlands. If we
can trap the male sparrow we do and then dispatch him
in a plastic bag with a squirt of automotive starter
fluid.
If you can't shoot him, we advise you to leave him
alone until the young birds are ready to fledge. Then
dispatch them to keep them from adding to the
population. The male will again attrack a female and
start the process over again. This usually keeps him
away from other birds.
Hope you've gotten better solutions than this, but it
seems to work for us.
Judy Arnold

--- Patti Bell <pbjoin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I understand that the common wisdom about nesting
> House Sparrows is to try
> and prevent them from being successful, if possible.
>  Usually I hear the
> advice offered as it relates to House Sparrows
> invading nesting boxes, but I
> have a slighly different issue.  I've got a pair of
> House Sparrows who've
> been working on a nest in a fairly open box (it's a
> three-sided platform box
> with a roof, designed for robins).  I live in a very
> urban area (Highlands
> neighborhood in Louisville) so I already have about
> 30 house sparrows for
> every Chickadee, Goldfinch, and Carolina Wren.  I
> have two questions:
> 1) would removing the nest material and/or eggs
> until they get discouraged
> be a futile effort in this case, considering how
> much they are entrenched in
> the neighborhood?
> 2) would removing the nest material and/or eggs
> simply cause them to seek
> out a more traditional cavity, where they might be
> more likely to harm
> another native cavity-nester?
> 
> 
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with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY
E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx