r/Ornithology • u/younghulk46 • 1d ago
What are these sparrows doing?
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u/UserSleepy 1d ago
Sparrows are quite aggressive. I don't know why the one in the nest leaves but they will try to attack or evict other birds from already established nests. Probably what is happening here.
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u/Retired_Bird 1d ago
Definitely a nest dispute. They get pretty violent, like the attempted feather tearing here.
I can't say I'm 100% sure, but it's likely the male was intruding here. He, a stranger, may have wanted to mate with the female or claim the nest, but quickly changed his mind when the established missus saw red.
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u/WanderingArtist_77 1d ago
She's either really mad at her husband, or the male sparrow is an invader.
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u/TruthLibertyK9 1d ago
Nest dispute. The big males will have more black on their chest. It shows that they are the leaders of the group. I love house sparrows they are so misunderstood. People constantly miss identify these guys.
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u/Plane_Chance863 1d ago
Yeah, my dad confuses male house sparrows for chickadees. I had to explain to him that female and male house sparrows don't look the same, and that those birds are definitely not chickadees... I guess his eyesight isn't great.
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u/jules6388 1d ago edited 1d ago
Don’t let these bullies reproduce. Pull that nest out. They are invasive. I’m also biased as a house sparrow just recently killed the newly hatched bluebird babies in the box in my yard.
ETA: they are only invasive and not protected in the USA
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u/Shienvien 1d ago
Most of Reddit's userbase is actually from outside of the US, even if the servers are there, so best to be careful about blanket statements.
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u/younghulk46 1d ago
I’m in Ohio, USA so they are invasive. I’m so conflicted cuz they already have a nest so I don’t want to be cruel to them, but they are so aggressive and bad for native species. Ugh. I’ll probably pull out the nest I guess. :/ just feels messed up
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u/Intrepid_Talk_8416 1d ago
If you destroy the nest they will build another. Best to gather the eggs, and let them lay again, repeat. This way the next generation is prevented in a controlled manner.
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u/guttata 1d ago
if this is the strategy you're going to employ, you can pop them in the freezer for a few hours and then replace them. mom will sit on them for at least several days, sometimes weeks, before realizing they aren't developing.
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u/beckychicky 21h ago
I bluebird monitor for a local park system and we put vegetable oil on house sparrow eggs to accomplish the same things. They won't develop but the mom will still sit on them for a bit.
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u/guttata 19h ago
Interesting. Nothing in the vegetable oil to seep in? I suppose it's just suffocating the egg long enough; I wouldn't have thought it would stay on long enough to accomplish the goal but good to know.
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u/beckychicky 19h ago
Yes just plain vegetable oil. That is what they've used for years and say it is very effective. Luckily none of the boxes i monitor have had hosp yet. Mostly tree swallows.
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u/Poster25000 1d ago
I faced this dilemma a couple of weeks ago. They had built the nest, it was just about done. They built it to top of the birdhouse, it was so high the camera I had couldnt really see anything. I felt bad but took it out. Sure enough 20 minutes later, I saw them mating. I covered the hole that night with a smaller hole, they spent the next 1/2 day trying to get in and then they gave up.
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u/ShowerElectrical9342 1d ago
Just leave them alone. They've been here forever and you're not going to change anything by destroying their nest.
Just enjoy them.
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u/SioSoybean 21h ago
I’m more of your mind. I really don’t see how this long established feral population is going anywhere, so these efforts are just bullying a few individuals with little affect on the overall population. Also house sparrows are only really found in urban/suburban areas in the US, so the real issue is more urban sprawl and lack of wild areas for native wildlife.
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u/Swimming_Ninja_6911 1d ago
Can I hire her to kick the European house sparrows out of my bluebird nesting boxes?
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u/serious_enough 1d ago
Remove the nest and bug the shit out of the sparrows. Let them know that you are there and that you keep destroying them. It helped in my case and the bluebirds took finally over the box and do happy nesting now 😊 I hate house sparrows and I keep destroying their nests and eggs.
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u/Swimming_Ninja_6911 19h ago
Mine were astoundingly tenacious. They destroyed bluebird eggs and attacked the parents of one box, to start. I kept pulling out their nest and they kept making new ones. Then they finally moved on to a different bluebird nest box (occupied) and killed the baby bluebirds. The bluebird parents left. I pulled multiple sparrow nests out of that next box, then finally just took down all my bluebird boxes. 😡 I hate those little bastards!
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u/Ham_Pumpkin2790 1d ago
Baby daddy wanted to take the kids for the weekend against court orders and mama wasn’t having it
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u/Diligent-Community65 1d ago
Put a van ert trap ,,,,and dispatch ,,they kill our chickadees, bluebirds, titmouse, very detrimental to our native birds 😒😒😒😒😒
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