Category Archives: house sparrows

This bird house may seem like a good idea…

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but it’s not. People think these multiple hole bird houses are great additions to gardens because they hope to bring in lots of birds.

This one was put up at a local nature center. I won’t mention any names but we did prevail upon them to cover up the holes so as not to encourage the types of invasive birds that like to nest in them, such as house or English sparrows…

Can you see the little hole at the top? The birds got in anyway and this is their third brood of the season. The problem with these aggressive little sparrows is that they are much tougher and pushier than most of our native songbirds and will actually bully other birds out of their nesting spots, even killing the parent and baby birds that are in their way. I’m not advocating injury to these birds but if we can stop offering them free housing like this that may help with their overpopulation. Very few of our local birds would nest so close to each other but these guys will just bicker and push each other around and live together uneasily if noisily.

Here’s one of the little guys waiting for mom or dad to bring new food. Check out the paper wasp nest that was starting to be built there, too.

Many people put up these multiple hole bird houses hoping to attract the purple martins that once frequented our area. These cavity nesting birds are starting to make a comeback in our area but you must have special habitat situations for them to consider nesting in your yard. If you are interested in learning more please check out any of the bird information websites that offer nesting information and birdhouse plans.

Follow up on my sparrows….

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Some of you may remember my post back in May about strange nesting places….

See those little dots on the wire? Those are English sparrows, also called house sparrows. The view is from my side yard in Hyannis and the funny oblong thing on the wire is a hollow wooden wire guide that used to protect the wire from rubbing against our big old sugar maple that met a sad and unfortunate end last year….

Early in the spring I saw the sparrows taking nesting material to the little wooden “house” and even then I wondered how it was going to work when it was time for the baby birds to fledge. The first group didn’t do so well but some survived. The second group did much better and now we are on the third group…

There has been a lot of chatter and activity around the nest over the last few days and it seemed as if some of the siblings were still hanging around and in some ways were even cheering on their little brothers and sisters, cousins, or whatever they were to them. This morning was the first time the little ones came all the way out. You can see them to the left, looking a bit nervous perhaps….one is also on the top of the nesting area.

These little guys are still being fed by the parents and even some of the siblings it appears. I know that house sparrows are aggressive and invasive birds but I have to hand it to them for this one. Surviving and thriving in such an odd spot has earned a bit of admiration from me this summer. These are hardy, adaptable birds!