Bird Cam - How to Evict a Sparrow

[knight-of-ni]

During the winter, a Sparrow took over the nest of the seasonal barn Swallows that nest under our porch every spring and summer. I've been thinking of a way to evict the Sparrow and what you see in the image is what I came up with. KISS method. Dog toy. Let's see how well this works. I've got a surveillance camera aimed at the nest so we will be able to see exactly how the Sparrow reacts.

[mikb]

Don't be mean to the sparrows.

Otherwise the only criminal your CCTV catch will be you

Their lawyers may fight back, using your forum posting as evidence ...

Then you'll be up before the beak.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/law/whats ... helaw.aspx

[knight-of-ni]

This is one of the things where my wife's interests and mine overlap. I provide the gear for her bird watching hobby.
According to what I've been told, the Sparrows are the mean ones. My wife's bird watching friends have instructed us to find a way to get rid of the Sparrow before the Swallows return, lest violence ensue. They claim the Sparrow will tear the Swallows a new one. We decided to temporarily cover up the nest to encourage the sparrow to move on w/o anyone (bird) getting hurt.

Now if only I knew if the Swallows were African or European....

[tcg]

If you are talking about the European House Sparrow (HOSP), then they are considered a pest. They are not native and are not protected. I do purple martins as a hobby and the HOSP are agressive and will drive our native birds out of their nesting places. Trap or shoot is my advice.

[knight-of-ni]

Yeah, that sounds very similar to what I've been told, that the Sparrow is an invasive species and is very aggressive.

Here is a picture of the culprit. Maybe you can confirm for me that this is indeed a HOSP:


I'm hoping he gives up and leaves before the barn Swallows return. We've been looking forward to watching the Swallows and their babies this spring.

[tcg]

Yes, that's a male house sparrow. You can tell by the black bib under his chin. They are relentless. They don't give up easily. If they find a nest they want, they will go in and break eggs or kill other young birds. They are cavity nesters and the problem is that they are smaller than most of our native cavity nesters so it's very hard to keep them out of things such as bluebird boxes. The female is a bit harder to ID so be careful not to confuse them with a chipping sparrow, which is a good sparrow.

By the way, that's a barn swallow nest. They build open-top mud nests. I've actually been trying to attract them for years but they don't seem to like my porch. Congrats on having a pair! Hope they like your soccer ball.

[dodtsair]

Is that sparrow in a staring contest with your ball?

[nugget]

I live in Sydney, Australia. Back in the early days of the colony the English settlers introduced House Sparrows to make it feel more like home - there were flocks of them when I was a kid back in the '70's.

These days Starlings and Indian Mynas have taken over, decimating the Sparrow population. I've always thought of them as gentle unassuming birds; I've never realised they were ruthless killers and home wreckers!

Personally, give me the Sparrows any day over the Mynas and Starlings. But I still prefer the local parrots in the garden.

[knight-of-ni]

My wife removed the dog toy from the nest a few days ago.
Good timing because the Barn Swallows returned today.
However, the Sparrow has been inspecting the nest daily so it is going to be interesting to see what happens.

[patmansf]

My wife removed the dog toy from the nest a few days ago.
Good timing because the Barn Swallows returned today.
However, the Sparrow has been inspecting the nest daily so it is going to be interesting to see what happens.

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

[nugget]

Keep us posted ... here "down under" interactions between the native animals and introduced species ends in a gladiatorial "thumbs up/thumbs down" decision ... normally thumbs against the indigenous species!

[knight-of-ni]

So it's been a while and I thought I'd post an update.
The Swallows successfully nested and for the past week we have been watching three baby Swallows in the nest.



As for the Sparrow, it turns out he acted exactly as was predicted by everyone I spoke to. He simply wasn't willing to give up the nest.

As a matter of fact, after the Swallows would put nesting material into the nest, the Sparrow would take it out. This went on for a number of weeks until I saw him bring his mate to the nest. That's when I took things to the next level. I bought an inexpensive bird house from Lowes and modified it with a Van Ert trap door . You can see the bird house trap in the photo.

It took a bit of patience, but the female Sparrow was trapped first. Several days later, the male was trapped as well. Problem solved. It turns out the adult Swallows use the top of the bird house as their porch so I just left it there for them to use. From what I have learned, they avoid going into bird houses so there is no chance I'll accidentally catch one of them in the trap.

What surprised me from this experience was the amount of conflict in the bird world. I had no idea.

[nugget]

Thanks for the update - I need to ask...

Is it an African or European swallow?

[knight-of-ni]

Is it an African or European swallow?

What? I don't know. Aaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh!

[knight-of-ni]

Our nest of baby Swallows are about to take flight. Their parents are coaxing them from the nest today.