Odd question concerning House Sparrow

[glmcvickers]

I'm new to this so please bear with me. This is my second year to have PM's. Last year I had only one pair and they hatched out 4 little ones in a Coate's Water's Edge 8 room house. I started with a Heath quad house and added the Coate's last year but nothing but a pair of House sparrows nested in the Heath house. I let them stay which was probably a mistake but the pair of PM's didn't seem concerned. The PM's left for the year, the sparrows hatched their brood, we had a couple of hurricanes and the year of birds in the back yard was over.

This year I added 6 Excluder goards with crescent holes and put the Coate's house and Heath house back up. The goards filled up in February and didn't have any activity on the houses. A couple of weeks ago the sparrows came back and started sitting on the Coate's house and since there were no PM's using it or the Heath house I put blanks in the holes so the sparrows couldn't use them again. Then......more PM's started landing on both houses so I removed the blanks and now I have two pair of PM's nesting in the Coate's house and two in the Heath house and one pair of sparrow's on the back side. Should I do something with them this year????? Help!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure exactly what sparrows will do to the martins...they are on opposite sides of the house and don't seem to bother each other. The Coate's house is so much better I wish they'd decided to nest over there but it wasn't my call.

You just don't know how much enjoyment I get out of them and I don't want anything to happen to them.

[John Miller]

It would be best to trap or shoot the house sparrows. Sparrows keep colonies from thriving by blocking compartments, and at worst, the male occasionally snoops around to unguarded martin nests to break eggs and toss out young nestlings. He may be more likely to do this if he is unmated and wants all the compartments to impress potential mates.

If your situation does not allow sparrow removal by trapping or shooting -- be aware of "male house sparrow revenge" syndrome. Pulling out his nest makes him meaner. I'm stopping just short of advising leaving this pair alone for now, but that may pose the least risk if your season has progressed to the point that martins have eggs or babies.

John Miller

[Guest]

Speaking from past experience, if your PMs and HOSP tolerate each other, then you might might be safe for this season. It may be that the existing HOSP will chase off other curious HOSP. Then again, your current HOSP may decide to fill up all the other compartments with debris, kill the PM chicks, and take over.

If these are the same HOSP as last year, and they didn't show any aggression, I think you'll be safe. If these are new HOSP...?

Better to be safe than sorry. Neutralize the HOSP and remove their nest.

Two ways to neutralize the HOSP.
1) Shoot them.
2) Trap them.

Shooting is absolutely lethal, and highly effective.
Trapping may or may not be lethal. If you use a live-capture trap (like the Universal Sparrow Trap), you can do with the HOSP as you please: kill them or trim their primary feathers.

Personally, I trap the HOSP and trim their primaries. It doesn't harm the HOSP, but makes them lose any and all interest in mating for at least six (6) months (the time it takes for those feathers to grow back). HOSP courting displays seem to place emphasis on the primaries and the rectrices (tail feathers), or so I hear.

[Guest]

I let them stay which was probably a mistake but the pair of PM's didn't seem concerned. The PM's left for the year, the sparrows hatched their brood, we had a couple of hurricanes and the year of birds in the back yard was over.

I'll bet the year wasn't over for the sparrow. He probably produced 1-2 more broods before he was finished. Now is the perfect time to trap that sparrow since the martins haven't really started laying yet, but it's close. You can use the sparrows own nest material you tear out of your martin box to lure him into a trap....if you have a bluebird box trap anyway. Put the bluebird box trap on a post about 10ft from the martin pole in a spot the sparrow can see easily. Tear out his nest and throw in on the ground at the base of the bluebird box trap. Take some of the white string and white feathers from the materials and put it inside the trap and let the ends of the white string dangle out of the hole. The sparrow will see all that material on the ground and land on the bluebird box trap to check it out. Its only a matter of time from that point.

If you already have martin eggs there's a risk of him getting some of them before he finds your trap. In my opinion the risk is worth it because you are practically guaranteed to find martin eggs with holes poked in them if the sparrows stay. They wait till the martins are gone, fly in, poke the eggs and fly out. It's almost like they know the martins won't be back if he can sabotage their efforts to reproduce.

[glmcvickers]

Thanks for all in info. I had no idea they would be so destructive. I don't see any aggressive behavior from the pair. The sparrows have already started their nest as have the PM's so I'll try trapping them as we are too close to neigbors to try and kill them.

[glmcvickers]

Update on my HOSP situation. I was totally unable to trap them. I pulled their nest material out every day...then...much to my surprise....my husband came home with a pellet gun last weekend and I finally got a shot off and wounded the female. Feathers flew, she fell off the porch and hopped off into the vacant lot behind us. The male came back, found no nest or the female and I haven't seen him in 3 days.

I did discover why I had so many martins show up after all of mine were building their nests. The neighbors back behind us have 4 houses and have had a colony for years. They've let Starlings move into one of their houses so those PM's wandered over my way. I'm glad I don't have to worry about those pesky birds.

I have 4-5 eggs in all 6 gourds and the new PM's in the houses are working hard building their nests.