Just got my first sparrow cage last week. Hoping to get many over the years and help protect my Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows and Purple Martins. Now if I could only help my native woodpeckers more and get all the starlings! They are even more of a challenge.
I just got a new trap. I used to trap these guys several years ago. Im having such a hard time getting that first bird. They seem to prefer anything over bread, popcorn, nesting materials and crappy seed. I even put a mirror in there. These little guys are chasing all my favorite birds away from my feeder.
@@BigBlueDeep I do not know where you live. But where I am at the starlings are pretty well nested up by Memorial Day. They have no interest in finding Nest sites after that. So I'm pretty much done with them for the most part. They even let my flickers nest in peace for a change
Very sound wisdom, like your setup, tried and effective. Neighbors took their Martin house down because it was completely taken over by house sparrows, they just gave in. No control measures = unbalanced environment.
A lot of these birds are going to disappear because there are too many people unwilling to do what is necessary to preserve them. I live in an area that is very Martin poor. Took me 20 years to get one pair of Martins. I would really like to see people take care of this problem to reverse the trend of the decline
@@crzrck No, very few people see the problem for what it is. "Their too cute, too this, too that, you can't do this or that!" I'm in a fairly rural area and could be dinging them all day but my elderly neighbors would get upset. No way around it. I'm working on materials now, in the planning stages, gonna building something along your lines. Thanks for the reply!
The martin house has to have the half moon doors to prevent starlings, and to keep the house doarriws out, you have to play a radio near their Martin house. The Martin's are tolerant of noises and music but evidently the sparrows arent.
This method will pretty much keep removing these pests all year long with minimal maintenance. I don't even bait the trap any more. House sparrows have this social instinct to naturally attracted to their own kind regardless of the activity. It's like they can't resist getting in on the action
@crzrck Ingenious! So, do you believe that even if the "bait" sparrows may not be happy about being in the trap, the others will still come? I have a multi-catch Iguana Trap I designed and as long as there's bait in there... it'll keep catching
I believe as human beings we should give something back from what we take. We alter the natural environment so terribly bad and we do nothing to give back
Thank you for sharing!! I have a huge population of them that need to go. They are trying to take over my martin houses. They are also throwing the martin eggs to the ground. 🤬
Rick I'm looking to add automatic door latches to my amish built T-2 style trap, are the latches on your older style trap homemade or purchased? Thanks
It varies per month I have a graph I kept for 4 years. It's a typical bell curve throughout the year. The month with the biggest totals is always August. It's drops down from there and its lowest point is in January it slowly starts to climb up again after that. I typically catch about 500 a year multiply that X 30 years.
@@crzrck This must vary by location. I never catch any during nesting season other than in Van Ert traps. But from late summer until then, it's on. And I've kept decoy birds alive for months feeding cracked corn.
I want to keep live ones in the Trap as long as possible. You have to keep their stress level down if you want to keep them alive in the trap. I currently have no live house sparrows. And I won't be able to start catching them until I catch one in the nest box trap
The only native birds that actively eat bread are grackles. Occasionally red winged blackbirds. And on occasion I've seen American Robins eat it as well but it is not typical. This may vary depending on where you live. I only have grackles from March to about the first week of June. I have witnessed crackles pulling bread out of the repeating trap and they have gone in the metal trap from the top. But I have noticed they are typically younger birds that are not breeding. The use of bread and bread products dramatically Cuts back on Native species. If you feed wild birds and you limit that fee to safflower sunflower or peanuts they will use that in the non-native birds will go to the bread. This time of year I don't even have to use any bait they will automatically go and see what the trap house sparrows are doing and they want to get in on the action.
Thank you so much for making this video. I’ve been pulling garlic mustard for years, it’s time I start pulling House Sparrows.
Don't forget the Starlings too! Got 3 today and 4 yesterday!
I love your passion at the end of the video! It's so nice to know I'm not alone and that there are some who still fight the good fight.
Thanks for the tips. Ive had good success trapping these invasive Sparrows which become a nuisance everywhere.
Thank you for sharing all yr Knowledge. Much appreciated. ✌
Just got my first sparrow cage last week. Hoping to get many over the years and help protect my Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows and Purple Martins. Now if I could only help my native woodpeckers more and get all the starlings! They are even more of a challenge.
Get a starling trap as well!
I just got a new trap. I used to trap these guys several years ago. Im having such a hard time getting that first bird. They seem to prefer anything over bread, popcorn, nesting materials and crappy seed. I even put a mirror in there. These little guys are chasing all my favorite birds away from my feeder.
You need a nest box trap
@@crzrck thanks for the reply. I checked my trap and I got a starling today. So ill be focusing on them for now. The sparrows will have to wait.
@@BigBlueDeep I do not know where you live. But where I am at the starlings are pretty well nested up by Memorial Day. They have no interest in finding Nest sites after that. So I'm pretty much done with them for the most part. They even let my flickers nest in peace for a change
@@crzrck here where I am they have nests and are still collecting nesting materials. One nested on my building and has babies at least 6 days old.
Keep up the good work there monsters
Very sound wisdom, like your setup, tried and effective. Neighbors took their Martin house down because it was completely taken over by house sparrows, they just gave in. No control measures = unbalanced environment.
A lot of these birds are going to disappear because there are too many people unwilling to do what is necessary to preserve them. I live in an area that is very Martin poor. Took me 20 years to get one pair of Martins. I would really like to see people take care of this problem to reverse the trend of the decline
@@crzrck No, very few people see the problem for what it is. "Their too cute, too this, too that, you can't do this or that!" I'm in a fairly rural area and could be dinging them all day but my elderly neighbors would get upset. No way around it. I'm working on materials now, in the planning stages, gonna building something along your lines. Thanks for the reply!
@@jamesfaul9824 I shoot them too... I have my bird feeder in a spot that allows for close range shooting g with a high powered pellet rifle.
The martin house has to have the half moon doors to prevent starlings, and to keep the house doarriws out, you have to play a radio near their Martin house. The Martin's are tolerant of noises and music but evidently the sparrows arent.
I pop their heads off and feed them to the cats.
Wow... just wow. You sir, have thoroughly impressed me! I look forward to future videos as I've subscribed. Well done.
This method will pretty much keep removing these pests all year long with minimal maintenance. I don't even bait the trap any more. House sparrows have this social instinct to naturally attracted to their own kind regardless of the activity. It's like they can't resist getting in on the action
@@crzrck Very interesting! Similar to my multi catch Iguana traps... the more in there, the more that are attracted.
@crzrck Ingenious! So, do you believe that even if the "bait" sparrows may not be happy about being in the trap, the others will still come? I have a multi-catch Iguana Trap I designed and as long as there's bait in there... it'll keep catching
@@trapperjay9476 I don't know I don't know iguana Behavior. I don't know if there's a social hierarchy or how they deal with social interactions
You are a Wildlife Hero!
I believe as human beings we should give something back from what we take. We alter the natural environment so terribly bad and we do nothing to give back
coool.
Thank you for sharing!! I have a huge population of them that need to go. They are trying to take over my martin houses. They are also throwing the martin eggs to the ground. 🤬
Yeah that's what happens if you don't stay on top of it
Thanks for the info
Rick I'm looking to add automatic door latches to my amish built T-2 style trap, are the latches on your older style trap homemade or purchased? Thanks
Mine are home made
Good job, could you tell us how many birds you trap, say in one week?
It varies per month I have a graph I kept for 4 years. It's a typical bell curve throughout the year. The month with the biggest totals is always August. It's drops down from there and its lowest point is in January it slowly starts to climb up again after that. I typically catch about 500 a year multiply that X 30 years.
@@crzrck This must vary by location. I never catch any during nesting season other than in Van Ert traps. But from late summer until then, it's on. And I've kept decoy birds alive for months feeding cracked corn.
Since house sparrows stress out native birds to the point if death, why do we worry about them stressing out?
I want to keep live ones in the Trap as long as possible. You have to keep their stress level down if you want to keep them alive in the trap. I currently have no live house sparrows. And I won't be able to start catching them until I catch one in the nest box trap
Thank you for your efforts. May you live to kill millions of house sparrows!
Don’t native birds eat bread too?
The only native birds that actively eat bread are grackles. Occasionally red winged blackbirds. And on occasion I've seen American Robins eat it as well but it is not typical. This may vary depending on where you live. I only have grackles from March to about the first week of June. I have witnessed crackles pulling bread out of the repeating trap and they have gone in the metal trap from the top. But I have noticed they are typically younger birds that are not breeding. The use of bread and bread products dramatically Cuts back on Native species. If you feed wild birds and you limit that fee to safflower sunflower or peanuts they will use that in the non-native birds will go to the bread. This time of year I don't even have to use any bait they will automatically go and see what the trap house sparrows are doing and they want to get in on the action.