Sparrow Control in Public Spaces

[Chuck Yetter]

I have been a landlord for about 13 years and have a colony in MD approaching 80 pairs. I have recently retired and was interested in starting a new colony at a small local zoo that is close to my house. I think it would be a good place to expose the hobby to the greatest amount of people. However, I can't see how to control the sparrows in a very public place. I have seen the colony at Disneyworld at the Epcot Center and always wonder how they do it. Any ideas?

[John Miller]

Chuck

Descretely.... A public site even with a few sparrows still does a great deal for public education.

I've done cavity trapping at public sites, but a Zoo would be such a busy place..you don't want someone walking by if you are taking a sparrow out of a trap. But I've joked about a sparrow or two in residence at field day events...tell attendees to do as I say (trap); not as I do.

I'd probably limit myself to keeping housing plugged early in the season and opening a few units at a time; then pull pull pull sparrow nests up to the time that martins have eggs, then ceasing because of male house sparrow revenge. Frequent sparrow nest pulling can result in martins at a colony near full occupancy being able to claim most and maybe all of the cavities.

Good luck with it... John M

[Chuck Yetter]

Yea, I was thinking I would check their hours of operation and maybe come when it is not open to the public. Thank you for the good advice.

[Louise Chambers]

wrassling with HOSP is the biggest problem at a public site I help with - it's 9 miles each way, and if traps are in use, that means 2 round trips a day to set and monitor traps. But it's so important - without control, HOSP will keep a new colony from thriving. In this case, only 11 young fledged from 49 eggs laid. Some of the losses could have been due to SY males, but most were due to HOSP, I think.

I am going to try to enlist another helper or two this year, for days when I cannot get there to trap. See if someone at the zoo can help you with monitoring traps.

[Jack Gulvin]

John Miller is right - a strong colony can repel most sparrows. But a few get through. Here's how I've learned to deal with them. I wait until the sparrow has completed her clutch and is incubating. Then I install a glue trap. I cut the trap in half lengthwise and form it into a tube with the sticky inside. This goes into the tunnel in the sparrow nest. Very important: a martin excluder on the entrance hole. An old credit card with a one and three eights hole works well, attached with masking tape. Once the house is up, the sparrow will be in and stuck usually within 10 minutes. Remove the sparrow, the nest and the excluder, and martins will be free to take over the cavity. This system sure works well for me.

[Martin man RI]

This works if you have trio brand houses I just leave the trap door
in place on the house and remove the dead sparrow most of my sites
are public and i cannot afford to be seen with a sparrow in hand or in the
act of killing people would freak......Every other day i check and remove
and re-set trap. People have no clue. I dont wait around and the sparrows
expire in a day. Never had a issue with native birds in the trap too.
The sparrows want the small hole and prefer it over the larger holes works
like a charm.

[KathyF]

Martin Man - even on my worst "ticked off at HOSP" days, I wouldn't leave one to expire on its own. How do you know that it's not a chickadee or a tufted titmouse or a bluebird in that trap that you've just let expire?

I have a plan for trapping HOSP at my public site. Reduce the hole size (I use the top of a sour cream container), set the trap and monitor 2x a day. If I catch a HOSP and someone sees me with it, I'll tell them how bad HOSP are for the colony and that I'm "relocating it to the country". This is actually the truth. They don't need to know that I'm wringing its neck before I toss it into the brush for the coyotes, foxes & other predators.

There are other 'passive' methods - such as clipping off the male's tail and flight feathers, but the problem with this method is that the HOSP will moult and come back next year with full plummage....and he will be even harder to trap next time - they seem to learn what to avoid after being trapped the first time.

A safety note when using glue traps is to never take your eye off the nestbox after setting it. Jack is right - It only takes between 10-30 minutes after placing a glue trap to get the HOSP when they have eggs that they're incubating.

[Seller]

You should hire this guy!

*Warning* The video shows him shooting sparrows! (in slow motion too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWLCa-PM ... re=related

[John Miller]

wow...cool video. I enjoyed it. Not sure the location...but sure not a Texas accent (grin).

Please folks if you do shoot or trap, be careful on IDs. Some native sparrows, especially the juveniles, look similar to female house sparrows.

Chuck...don't let us scare you off. I think every site is a little different regarding sparrows. You might not even have any -- they are spotty and localized. John M

[KathyF]

The same guy does a video on "Why I shoot starlings" too - it has a short clip in it of a starling viciously attacking another (already dead) starling - the attack is vicous.

[Chuck Yetter]

John--we have tons of HOSP around here and I think there is a lot at the zoo because of the animal feed and people dropping food. Shooting is out of the question there obviously. Thanks for the great advice so far from everyone.