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Disappointing start to this season. I was lucky last year, I guess.
Right away a pair of House Soarrows claimed the nest box. Bluebirds are in the area even now, but if they go near the nest box the sparrows chase them away.
I don’t want to harm the sparrows. Every evening I remove their nest material. I’m fortunate to be able to watch the nest box and see who is going in, and the nest material of the sparrows is clearly different, so I am removing sparrow nest material.
Prompting this post, this is the first evening there hasn’t been any material to remove, not one strand of straw or moss. They’ve been persistent, back at it every day for a couple weeks, until today. So, maybe they’ve given up. We’ll see. The true test will be whether Bluebirds try again.
- Ira / Coastal NW Florida
Hey, Ira. Sorry about your house sparrow problems. I didn’t realize that you haven’t started trapping yet. You’ll have a very frustrating season, I’m afraid. The House Sparrows will not give up! And the problem is, as you are removing strands of grass for several weeks the bluebirds move on to find another nesting place.
I know you don’t want to hurt the House Sparrows and I get that. That will change when they kill an entire nest of cute little bluebird nestlings. Or kill the parents in the nestbox. At least that’s when it changed for me. One thing you can do which I did in the beginning is to trap the House Sparrow with a Van Ert trap and take them far away to release. I used to do that at my church. It’s not legal but it’s all I could do at the time.Tammy
Aih
I can’t impress enough…
If you aren’t willing to eliminate the hosp you really should just take the nest boxes down all together. This may seem harsh but believe me the hosp will come back and kill the blue birds.
Removing nesting material will NOT deter the hosp.Chris
Rochester, NYN
The bluebirds didn’t move on. They still come to my yard to hunt and to eat at my feeders every morning. They must be nesting nearby, just not in my nest box. Actually, that’s fine. The nest box was for the birds, not me.
I kept removing the House Sparrow nest material every day, but they kept trying. This was for months. Their persistence is amazing. One day there was an egg. I don’t know if I missed a day or they just worked faster. After I tossed that nest and egg, they stopped. Perhaps losing a nest was not enough to deter the House Sparrow brain, but losing eggs was, apparently. Since then I haven’t seen them. But overall, I see few House Sparrows.
It isn’t that I don’t appreciate the harm that House Sparrows do, or the risks. I understand. But I’m not going to harm a bird.
I have a friend across town. This is his first season trying to host a nest box. He is trapping and killing House Sparrows, and in fact killing House Sparrows whenever he can. Still, House Sparrows have destroyed the Bluebird nest and eggs in his box. He thinks he has reduced the House Sparrow population, but still they destroyed the nest in his box.
If you think I have no business hosting a Bluebird nest box, fine, you are entitled to your opinion; but I have mine, too. I don’t believe killing all the House Sparrows I can is going to change anything, it isn’t going to eliminate House Sparrows. Unfortunately, nesting Bluebirds face the risk whether they are nesting in someone’s nest box or in a cavity in a tree or a post. I had a perfect season last year, my first nest box season. This year has been a bust. I’ll try again next year. Who knows beyond that. I’m open to creating obstacles and things to discourage or spook House Sparrows, and I may have to try something like that.
I’ve learned that not feeding the House Sparrows may reduce House Sparrows in the immediate area, but if they are around they can still choose your nest box, and you can’t do anything about your neighbors’ feeder.
- Ira / Coastal NW Florida
I agree if you don’t have the will to eliminate sparrows then keep the box down. They will eventually kill babies or adults. Sad because the bluebirds need us and sparrows really need to be thought of as incredibly overpopulated and dangerous mice and rats with wings honestly. It is not an over exaggeration. Plugging my web page if this helps convince
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