Trap Bait

[Nanette]

I have several bird feeders on my deck which unfortunately attract too many sparrows. I "serve" hulled sunflower and meal worms. The bluebirds in particular love the mealworms although the sparrows have also developed a taste for them. I have a repeating trap from the PMCA catalog which I have placed on my deck but I tend to catch more "good" birds than anything else. The sparrows rarely go in it. I have put white bread in it but the sparrows don't seem interested. What is the best bait for the sparrows?

[roblrich]

You might want to try using feathers (along with the bread). Sparrows seem to be unable to turn their backs on feathers, especially when building nests. If feathers are scarce you might be able to find them at Walmart or a craft store. Once you have caught a sparrow or two, their presence is your best bait. Anyways, I heard when all else fails in these type traps, that feathers seem to work.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Many people say that sparrows really like white millet. I have used bait on my driveway, fed the sparrows a few days, then put a bait trap on the driveway, after they are accostumed to eating there, they go into the trap much easier. When they enter, the others try real hard to enter, so its best to put water into the trap to keep them alive so they attract other sparrows...

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

Nanette, I'm hoping you know that not all sparrows are bad. Only the English House Sparrows are problematic.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Fred, thats a very good point to make that native sparrows are different from English house sparrows..If I see a sparrow on my housing, I usually only shoot the male because he is easy to identify with that black bib under his beak. If he is gone, the female English house sparrow will not stay either.

I have some native sparrows that stay at my place, and they cause no harm whatsoever.. I have even had people tell me that the finches were sparrows...If you are even mildly interested in martins or other birds, I strongly recommend a good bird identification book...

[Guest]

The great feather chase.

If you need white feathers go no further then your home. Check the pillows and jackets around the house first.

My husband usually only shoots the females first. He claims that he can take out more sparrows by leaving the male there to bait in females. After shooting several females he will then shoot the male sparrow. However if there are eggs around he shoots the males ASAP.

Thanks MN marting gal

[Craig Haddox]

Nanette, I use the st-1 sparrow trap and use the cheepest birdseed I can find, the sparrows seem to love the stuff. I also use white bread. I put 6 or 7 big chunk's of bread in each trap to give them more incentive to go in the trap. I also try to keep the bread away from the edges so they can't cheat. Also keep a sparrow or two in the trap to attract others in the area. I trapped 8 sparrows ( all males) in a week doing this. Good luck this year.

[Nanette]

Thanks everyone,
I'll go get some millet. I know they love it but so do the finches. Do I need to be afraid of leaving sparrows and finches together or do I need to clean out the finches as they get caught? I've never heard of feathers attracting sparrows but I will surely give it a try along with the supplemental white bread.
I have only noticed three types of sparrows (song, chipping and house) hanging around my feeders. I think the easiest way to determine the female house sparrow is that she has an unstreaked breast. Even the female house finch which I know some people confuse with a female HS has a streaked breast. I know there are other characteristics to look at but for me, that is the big one. The male of course, is easy since there are no other bibbed sparrows in my area.
About setting up the trap, the sparrows sure seem suspicious of it. As much as I dislike them, they are pretty darn smart. Would I be better placing it in a new area such as the driveway and baiting it there or should I keep in on the deck near the feeders? Can I somehow disguise it? At the risk of sounding stupid...I am pretty convinced they know what the thing is and won't go near it!