A quick way to kill starlings

[Scully]

As the regulars on here know, all my martin keeping is done on public school campuses. In such a setting the killing of starlings and sparrows must be done very discretely, if at all.

The house sparrow problem we have been able to address by trapping invading house sparrows in the gourds, clipping off their tail feathers short, and releasing them. This has worked well for us as these sparrows, though they still fly well and can be seen around campus for months, apparently have a hard time attracting/keeping a mate and do not continue to bother the gourds.

Starling problems have been minimal for us since the arrival of various effective SREH's on the market. Recently however we took delivery of a large quantity of Troyer Horizontal gourds with Conley II entrances. While the Troyer Horizontal is a VERY good design, the Conley II entrance is not and does permit some starlings to enter.

Prior trials some years back has shown that starlings are not meaningfully affected in any way by tail clipping, they remain mated and will return to the gourds. Lacking any means of deterrence, killing them is the only option. The faster and more inconspicuously in a public setting the better.

I trapped a starling in a Troyer yesterday using the very well designed and simple to use Troyer entrance trap.

Once the starling was in hand I was able to kill it almost instantaneously by holding the head between thumb and forefinger of one hand, thumb against the back of the starling's head. With firm pressure on the starling's head with my thumb I was able to very quickly cave in the whole back of the skull (thinner than an eggshell) bringing a very quick end to the starling. No external bleeding occurs as a result of this procedure.

A lot faster and easier for example than wringing their necks.

Mike Scully

[starling shooter]

You could clip ONE set of flight feathers on one wing and release them....we did that to chickens all the time groiwng up so they could not fly out of the pen. The ones I take out of a trap I usually just step on. I would think zoos and rehabbers could use them to feed snakes and such. In a big city, I would't think they would ever have to buy food..couple of NB traps and they could feed MANY!

[Don Strickland]

I suppose Sparrow and Starling control methods are different for different folks, but...
Tail feathers will grow back and they will still be causing problems for the Martins. If not at your place, some other land lord will inherit them.
I have a problem with clipping wings also. They may starve to death and that isn't a very humane way to dispose of them.
Why couldn't you place them in a cage until you can privately and permanently dispose of them???
Don

[Matt F.]

I suppose Sparrow and Starling control methods are different for different folks, but...
Tail feathers will grow back and they will still be causing problems for the Martins. If not at your place, some other land lord will inherit them.
I have a problem with clipping wings also. They may starve to death and that isn't a very humane way to dispose of them.
Why couldn't you place them in a cage until you can privately and permanently dispose of them???
Don

Great questions Don.
I hope Mike doesn't mind me briefly entering in on his behalf.
Here's a quote from a post that I had made sometime back, describing the unique situation Mike is in, in reference to the school colonies he is the caretaker of:

About Scully, who posted above. Many may not know, he is in a very delicate situation, in reference to the Martin colonies he sets up, and manages, at the schools, including the one he teaches at.
He's been allowed to erect the housing on campus, and over the years, has done an amazing job with getting his students involved with the Martins, and Martin management.
That said, the issue of dealing with sparrows (starlings aren't a big problem for him as his gourds are all starling resistant), has to be handled with extreme sensitivity - a degree of sensitivity that thankfully most of us don't have to deal with.
It's an unfortunate truth, that many folks out there, are adamantly against lethal control methods, no matter how the obvious need for such a thing is presented to them.
If he were to employ lethal control methods, there would most likely be some students, and/or faculty/staff, that would raise enough of a "stink", that the whole Martin project could be ordered to cease operations, and all campus Martin housing be taken down.
Under those sensitive circumstances, Scully is performing sparrow control as much, and as aggressively, as he can, without jeopardizing the whole operation.
He fully understands how important lethal control is, and probably (Mike, I hope I'm putting inaccurate words in your mouth) would love nothing more than to be able to put it into practice at his school colonies. However, when the emotions and sensitivity of some of the school kids, parents, faculty/staff, and even school administrators, could result in the end of those very productive colonies, you can see the dilemma he's in.
These school colonies, aside from producing many Martins every year, may very well be getting many students interested in Purple Martins outside of school - students that in the future, may become caring, and conscientious Martin landlords/potential landlords, like us....

[Don Strickland]

I think the good, the bad, and the ugly should have been presented to everyone who is involved to begin with. Tail clipping and Wing clipping only temporarily takes care of the problem. The ability to fly is hampered and the birds fly into things and injure themselves because they can't navigate. That's not humane and neither is starvation. It causes extreme suffering and a slow death. There are no legitimate arguments that can make that an acceptable method. That's worse than trying to drown the captives with a water hose.
Don

[Matt F.]

Great points again.
The only thing Mike is doing, is tail clipping the house sparrows.
This does two things:
- makes the male sparrows much less attractive to prospective mates
- makes is practically impossible for them to balance, to be able to copulate
So it is effective for at least taking that particular male out the if reproductive cycle, for at least that season.
There is definitely no wing clipping, starvation, or anything inhumane that is performed.
I think everyone here are firm believers in using the quickest, most humane methods, when dispatching a house sparrow or starling.

[Scully]

I have a problem with clipping wings also. They may starve to death and that isn't a very humane way to dispose of them.

I do not clip wing feathers for that very reason.

Tail feathers will grow back and they will still be causing problems for the Martins

We typically have at leasr thirty active house sparrow nests every year around campus, with sparrows also at saturation levels in the surrounding neighborhoods.

We have successfully used the tail clippling method for several years on campus, I have no idea if the same sparrow ever returns a second year, if it does it loses its tail feathers again until the fall moult and presumably does not reproduce that year either.

Why couldn't you place them in a cage until you can privately and permanently dispose of them???

Time. These martins are at my workplace and, typically having several continuing student projects going on, my days frequently run 12 hours or more even without martins.

Passing periods on campus are six minutes long, in that time I can walk out to a gourd pole, lower it, remove a trapped sparrow and clip the tail feathers, release the sparrow, reset the trap and raise the gourd set and STILL get to class on time.

Likewise with killing that starling.
.
Mike Scully

[Jodiebf]

Is there any type of birth control product that could be fed to the sparrows/starlings? It could be fed to the birds while caught and in a cage/box. Since the sparrow/starling can not be killed at many public sites, at least their reproduction could be stopped for at least one season after they are let go. This is not perfect but could help those who manage public sites etc....

Jodie

[Scully]

The ability to fly is hampered and the birds fly into things and injure themselves because they can't navigate.

Sir,

Feel free to come here and watch some of our tailless sparrows navigate... I cannot tell a difference and I've been watching birds, sometimes professionally, for more than 40 years. The sparrows in this photo had been that way for about a month...

I think the good, the bad, and the ugly should have been presented to everyone who is involved to begin with.

We began our colony in 1995, started keeping records electronically in 2002. In the last twelve years I believe I have killed exactly five starlings and perhaps eight sparrows. I stopped because when I killed, that was all the students talked about.

I'm thinking by now we have tail-clipped around fifty sparrows total, none have ever come back to pester the gourds.

During that same twelve years (2002 - 2013) we have probably fledged something like 1,800 new purple martins with maybe another 170 to be added this year, dependent upon the weather.

Mike Scully

[Scully]

Since the sparrow/starling can not be killed at many public sites, at least their reproduction could be stopped for at least one season after they are let go. This is not perfect but could help those who manage public sites etc....

Jodie,

I am unaware of anything you can GIVE a bird to stop its reproduction that would not also be highly regulated and also innately hazardous to the humans that handle it. Tail-clipping sparrows may accomplish that if indeed the males cannot sucessfully copulate.

Mike Scully

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I like the idea of killing the starlings with no blood, something that is quick and easy. I often use a stepladder to help remove the birds, so now I can kill them, and throw them on the ground, then reset the trap, all in one operation. I will try the same on sparrows. Thanks

[Scully]

Emil,

Please get back to us on how this method worked for you.

So far my sample size is... one starling.

Thanks,

Mike Scully

[JL Murray]

Scully, I am going to try this method as well it sounds better than the way i have been using.

[starling shooter]

I can't see a Starling or even a sparrow starving to death on the ground....

Starlings feed on the ground for the most part. Their bills are adapted to probe the yards/lawns. They eat nearly anything.

In fact, on islands without predators, birds become flightless. Flight remains primarily to avoid predators. If you clip a wing....your just making it easier for a accipiter (or more likely some irresponsible cat owner) or other predator to catch prey. Starlings are AMAZINGLY tough. Saw one caught in a dryer vent once that lived 3 days...no food, no water. If they are hoping around and only flying a few feet at a time....they can get all the food they want in most places. No need to fret over them "starvign to death'.

[BirdBrain]

When I was a kid, I came back from a dove hunt and dumped my game bag onto the patio floor to clean the birds. One of them flew away. It was limp and appeared lifeless when I had picked it up so it must have only been stunned or knocked out. And I never felt it fidget while still inside the game bag. Since then, whenever I shoot a game bird, I make sure it is dead.

All wild animals die an ugly death, starvation, exposure, disease or predation. There is no nursing home with a morphine drip waiting for them when they get old and feeble. If you think clipping the flight feathers off one of a starling's wing and turning it lose is any crueler a fate than what mother nature originally had planned for it, or what the starling had in mind to do to your PUMAs, you are mistaken.

I can't think of a single island where flightless birds live that isn't also home to the flying variety. Flying variety birds have a lot less trouble going wherever they please than the swimming (or walking) variety do, so it's tough to keep them out. New Zealand had flying birds but no ground predators (or ground mammals [only bats]) before the first man set foot there. They did have the largest species of eagle ever found, Haast's Eagle, but it certainly wasn't flightless. Most of the Galapagos islands still have no predators -- not even invasive ones -- but all have flying finches.

[tonyg]

Bottom line is the only good starling or sparrow is a dead one, regardless of how you dispose of it, just make sure you do..starlings don't give a Martin a second chance when they're destroying their nest and pecking them to death..clipping wings or tail feathers is only putting them back into the equation.to do more damage later on....

[Don Strickland]

TonyG,
My point exactly. I would never turn one loose, but different strokes for different folks.
Don

[Scully]

People do tend to overestimate the effect of killing on populations. Look at mourning doves: In Texas more than FIVE MILLION are legally shot every year by hunters, year after year, yet the bird remains common all across the state.

Would that we could kill five million each of house sparrows and starlings every year in Texas, or even fifty million, but if we did the effect on population? Nothing significant.

Nothing wrong with killing S&S however, especially those targeting one's housing.

Mike Scully

[Matt@atx]

The ability to fly is hampered and the birds fly into things and injure themselves because they can't navigate.

Sir,

Feel free to come here and watch some of our tailless sparrows navigate... I cannot tell a difference and I've been watching birds, sometimes professionally, for more than 40 years. The sparrows in this photo had been that way for about a month...

I think the good, the bad, and the ugly should have been presented to everyone who is involved to begin with.

We began our colony in 1995, started keeping records electronically in 2002. In the last twelve years I believe I have killed exactly five starlings and perhaps eight sparrows. I stopped because when I killed, that was all the students talked about.

I'm thinking by now we have tail-clipped around fifty sparrows total, none have ever come back to pester the gourds.

During that same twelve years (2002 - 2013) we have probably fledged something like 1,800 new purple martins with maybe another 170 to be added this year, dependent upon the weather.

Mike Scully

Hi Mr Scully,



Those fellows look like chicks( baby chickens) up there with no tails. haha Do you clip the entire tail feathers off or just a couple inches back?

[BirdBrain]

Who censored my previous post?

Sorry if it was too graphic for this forum but it was meant as instruction on how to kill a starling or HOSP quickly and with minimal pain but with absolute, 100% certainty.