Need Help Discouraging House Sparrows (1 Viewer)

[Bernie Nikolai]

I recognize that in some parts of Europe the population of House Sparrows is falling, but here in my part of Canada they are extremely abundant. The main reason seems to be virtually everyone has a "birdhouse" in the backyard that almost invariably is taken over by House Sparrows.

To my point...I maintain colonies of purple martins. While I can easily stop the starlings from nesting by using "starling resistant entrances" that allow in the purple martins, no such entrance exists for House Sparrows. Since they are smaller than purple martins any entrance that stops House Sparrows will stop purple martins as well from entering a house/compartment.

I'm looking for a non-lethal way to discourage them, as they are extremely aggressive and persistent. I am well aware of various strings and "spookers" that can help, but these also seem to frighten the purple martins. What has worked partially is painting the purple martin housing either "sky blue" or "sunshine yellow". This does not deter purple martins from nesting, and is partially successful in discouraging House Sparrows. The theory is a House Sparrow doesn't want to nest with an "open sky" and these colours inhibit them from choosing your housing. I have tried this the last 3 years, and sky blue or bright yellow does indeed inhibit, but not stop, sparrows from nesting. In other words, this method is better than nothing, but only partially successful.

Does anyone else on the forum have any ideas on how to stop House Sparrows from selecting housing meant for other species? I want to add that I admire the House Sparrow a great deal and do NOT want to harm them. Its just that they are so very successful here that they need no help. I'm trying to find ways to discourage them from choosing the purple martin housing. Any ideas from my European friends on this forum? Putting up a house for House Sparrows next to the purple martin housing doesn't work. They simply nest in the house plus other English Sparrow pairs immediately attempt to nest in the purple martin housing as well. So my hope is someone, somewhere has an idea that is working for them and will respond to this post.

 

[little liza]

Can you not place traps in the martin houses to catch them, then carry them off far away and release them?

 

[Bernie Nikolai]

Its been tried and doesn't work unfortunately. Even if you transport them 100 kms away and release the sparrows, another pair almost immediately takes up residence. Or several pairs. I'm still hoping against hope someone, somewhere, has tried something that has worked to discourage the sparrows from nesting in the first place, yet doesn't stop purple martins or other native North American cavity nesting birds from nesting.

 

[phil baber]

It seems a lost cause. Unless you continually play male territorial calls, or distress calls of House Sparrows around the affected boxes?

The distress call technique wipes Gulls off airfields apparently.

But you have to catch one, hang it upside down and record its calls.

Standard procedure at Bristol (England) Airport. It works very well apparently when played back to Gulls around the runway.

Maybe a House Sparrow distress call can be found on the Web, recorded and fed back to your boxes at appropriate junctures?

Just a thought...