41 house sparrows in 6 days

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KathyF
Posts: 3522
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Missouri/Licking
Martin Colony History: Colony started - 2007 with one pair
As of 2018 - 84 cavities offered, max # of pairs hosted - 82.

Last week I met a man that had 3 pairs of purple martins ...and the rest of the house was full of house sparrows. His yard was full of house sparrows to include young sparrow fledglings.

I took my trap over, baited already with 2 female house sparrows that I've been keeping alive. Within 24 hours I caught 11 and within 48 hours I had a total of 20.

Of the 41, a lot were new fledges....but they all looked like females. :???: I have caught about 8-10 males. Do fledged males look the same as an adult male? Seems like an abnormally high ratio of females to males.
"Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
2023 - 82 pair
2022 - 80 pair
2021 - 75 pair
2020 - 78 pair
2019 - 80 pair
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com
MingjoMartins
Posts: 312
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:28 pm
Location: Pataskala, OH

Kathy - What kind of trap are you using - I have a repeating sparrow trap from PMCA and can only catch a few birds every year. Have tried feathers, bright yarn, bird seed, bread and nests and rarely get lucky. I've even checked it for "holes" thinking the birds are getting out, but if so I don't see any escape routes.
2013 - 37 pair-179 eggs,142 hatched,139 fledged
2012 - 32 pair-163 eggs,141 hatched,134 fledged
2011 - 19 pairs - 78 fledged successfully!
2010 3 pairs - 9 eggs - 8 fledged!
2009 - 1 Sub Adult Male (only) - LOTS visitors
2008 - 58 Visitors by year end
2007 - 13 Visitors by year end
Brad-AL
Posts: 566
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 2:00 pm
Location: North AL

Male fledglings are colored the same as female fledglings. There might be some slight differences that I have never noticed, but all HOSP fledglings are the basic brown.

Thanks for ridding the world of the ones you've caught. When I tried to start my colony here, I caught over 300 HOSP the first year. I might have caught 20 males in adult plumage. The larger the black spot under the chin, the older or more dominant a male HOSP is. First year breeding it's pretty small.
KathyF
Posts: 3522
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Missouri/Licking
Martin Colony History: Colony started - 2007 with one pair
As of 2018 - 84 cavities offered, max # of pairs hosted - 82.

Brad,
That would make more sense than "all the fledglings are females". :wink: :lol: :lol: I tried to look that up on various websites, but could never find anything on the fledglings.

THANKS! :grin:
"Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
2023 - 82 pair
2022 - 80 pair
2021 - 75 pair
2020 - 78 pair
2019 - 80 pair
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com
KathyF
Posts: 3522
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Missouri/Licking
Martin Colony History: Colony started - 2007 with one pair
As of 2018 - 84 cavities offered, max # of pairs hosted - 82.

Mingjo,
I'm using both the PMCA repeating bait trap and Uncle Blaine's repeating sparrow trap.

I did have to modify my PMCA repeating trap though. One day I put a male HOSP in the PMCA trap that I had caught on a glue trap. I watched him from a window and he managed to pull the tripping cage back down with his beak and jump in and escape. :-(

I cut out a piece of wood just slightly larger than the square hole through which they exit the tripping cage and drilled a 2 1/4" hole in it. Then I stapled a piece of hardware cloth cut just a bit bigger than the hole over the hole - only stapled at the top on the holding side of the cage, so that the hardware cloth could be "pushed through" or would lift up when a bird pushed through the hole.

The birds can't lift the screen back up to get to the tripping cage (although I think Harley Hamm has had 1 instance of a male doing this). The bird is in such a panic when the cage drops that they're looking for an escape hole. Even though the screen is over the 2.25" hole he still pushes through it, the screen then drops and you have him! It's very important to have the hole in the wood - it delineates the escape hole better than just using screen.

I mounted the whole mechanism to the inside of the cage using some wire and drilled holes in each corner of the wood - a few twists and it was in!

It works the same as Uncle Blaine's sparrow trap. By the way, the absolute best "bait" is a female HOSP. Second to that, young fledglings (catch them with cheap millet seed from Walmart), next - nest material & feathers - lots & lots of feathers. Of course, YMMV - you have to keep trying different things if you don't have a female yet.
"Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
2023 - 82 pair
2022 - 80 pair
2021 - 75 pair
2020 - 78 pair
2019 - 80 pair
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com
~Patrick~
Posts: 537
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:42 pm

On house sparrow fledglings, the black of the male's bib starts to appear right under the beak on the chin. I caught one the other day that was just starting to turn. The young ones are easy to catch at this time of year so get out those repeating traps and let 'em have it. I think I hate sparrows more than starlings, if that's possible.

Patrick[/list]
Fredmyyster
Posts: 280
Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:30 pm
Location: Tennessee/ Nashville

I bought a pellet rifle this year and prolly took 150 shots, nailed one...maybe i need to buy a better rifle or pellets :)
I tried a sparrow repeater trap but its usually so windy here i trapped nothing.
Empty POOLS are a Delight ! !
Guest

This is the first year I have used a repeating bait trap for sparrows and I am totally amazed at how great it works!!! That is, after you catch your first sparrow! I have trapped and killed 34 this year so far and I'm not done yet!!! I have two hosp's as bait in it right now. I only killed about 6 last year with nest box traps and shooting. This bait trap is awesome!!! The starlings are kind of scarce right now this time of year. I usually check most of them in early spring in nest box traps!!! Killed 37 starlings so far this year!!!
Get out there and lets eliminate our native birds worst foe!
:lol: :lol:
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