How to get rid of Sparrows?

[FenceFurniture]

We have a flock of Sparrows that hang around here. I don't know if I've only just started noticing it, but there seems to be one in particular that is constantly and urgently chirrup-chirrup-chirrup-chirrup with no gaps for minutes on end. It's pretty loud and local, and is starting to drive me nuts. I've been sending a jet of water at it, and now it shuts up as soon as it sees me, but there are too many locations for it, and quite frankly getting out the hose all the time is a hassle.

I did a search, and there are plenty of suggested solutions, from special tape (but i can't possibly put it on the areas needed - next door house e.g.), ultra-sonic emitters, owl replicas, and so on.

I wonder about these things repelling all bird life though - surely they must? We get quite a few birds here, and I don't wish to see them go. The ultra-sonic machines all say "gets rid of Sparrows" but don't say how they affect other birds or not.

[Grumpy John]

Get Nursie on the job :roll:.

[FenceFurniture]

Lizzie actually got one a few years back. Unfortunately Nursie is a bit daft for hunting....

[Uncle Al]

A couple of rubber snakes from a toy shop might do the trick.

Maybe download the cry of an eagle / hawk etc and play it through an MP3 player.

I'm full of suggestions, they don't have to work, but they are fun to come up with!

Alan...

[Bob38S]

I know what used to happen in the old days but you're not allowed to do that anymore.

Just be aware that they like to nest in your roof areas and they do have lice.

[crowie]

When we were kids in Brisbane, you'd get 2cent a head and an air rifle made it easy money.....

[FenceFurniture]

.... an air rifle made it easy money.....Yairs. It has crossed my mind. I reckon it's one or two individuals that are making the constant noise.

[Sebastiaan56]

Toy snakes, life size and textured. just move them around every few days.

[FenceFurniture]

Well the problem seems to be lessening. My shaking of the tree and hosing seems to be paying off. He goes silent as soon as I come out :D Even when he is on next door roof if I shake the tree he buzzes orf.

Maybe it's a breeding thing, but I would have thought that would be much earlier in the year. Maybe not.

[Bohdan]

Bunnings sell a variety of owls for that purpose.

[doug3030]

Bunnings sell a variety of owls for that purpose.

I bought a bunnings owl which the label said was "guaranteed to scare all birds" or similar wording.

I got it because I had a pee-wee perching on the railing around the deck and crashing itself into its own reflection in the dining room window.

I set the owl up on the railing where the pee-wee sat to take off and walked off feeling a sense of a job well done - until I heard the pee-we crash into the window again. Now the bird was launching itself at the window from a new vantage point - on top of the owl's head.

Cheers

Doug

[fenderbelly]

From experience the owls and snakes don't work.

[I_wanna_Shed]

I bought a bunnings owl which the label said was "guaranteed to scare all birds" or similar wording.

I got it because I had a pee-wee perching on the railing around the deck and crashing itself into its own reflection in the dining room window.

I set the owl up on the railing where the pee-wee sat to take off and walked off feeling a sense of a job well done - until I heard the pee-we crash into the window again. Now the bird was launching itself at the window from a new vantage point - on top of the owl's head.

Cheers

Doug

Haha yes. I put one of the Eagles above our veggie patches and moved it to different spots. It's covered in bird crap!

[Grumpy John]

I've been told that CD's tied to fishing line and hung up similar to a wind chime work. I have not tried it myself though.

[groverwa]

We tried the CD thing at the native plant nursery but the parrots ignored them and the owl thing was a fail except that they made an elevated perch.

[Tonyz]

make friends with him, feed him, birdseed, mice bait, things that he likes to eat more mice bait

[Boringgeoff]

I bought a movement detector which connected to the garden hose in an attempt to keep the parrots off the lawn. When movement was detected it would activate the knocker sprinkler for three seconds. The instruction manual said it was effective in keeping deer, raccoons and squirrels off the lawn, didn't mention parrots though. It was useless at discouraging parrots but worked extremely well on the other vermin as we never ever saw a deer, raccoon or squirrel anywhere near the place.

[Toymaker Len]

Please not the 'mice bait' solution. Small things that get poisoned are usually eaten by owls or other larger birds which then die horribly.

[woodPixel]

I bought a movement detector which connected to the garden hose in an attempt to keep the parrots off the lawn. When movement was detected it would activate the knocker sprinkler for three seconds. The instruction manual said it was effective in keeping deer, raccoons and squirrels off the lawn, didn't mention parrots though. It was useless at discouraging parrots but worked extremely well on the other vermin as we never ever saw a deer, raccoon or squirrel anywhere near the place.

I could use one of those. My deer and raccoon infestations are out of control.

[Arron]

Well the problem seems to be lessening. My shaking of the tree and hosing seems to be paying off. He goes silent as soon as I come out :D Even when he is on next door roof if I shake the tree he buzzes orf.

Maybe it's a breeding thing, but I would have thought that would be much earlier in the year. Maybe not.

What you are hearing is the males advertising call. In breeding season male sparrows choose a spot near a potential nesting site and call incessantly, hoping to attract a female.

House sparrows have to attract mates by calling, they dont have bright colours or elaborate feathers or fancy bowers etc.

Birds get a big injection of hormones just before breeding season and it can lead to some very fixated and even self-destructive behaviour. It can be hard to stop. We had a lovebird that would not stop trying to mate with the shower curtain rod - went on non-stop for weeks. Just so much hormone.

Breeding season is variable, but house sparrows can have up to 4 clutches in one season so I guess its still going on. Its probably a matter of as long as there are insects around in good numbers they will try to keep breeding.

Obviously, he's starting to back off a bit now though.

And on the owls/hawkes thing. These rarely work but people keep trying because of a common misconception. People think that if a predator is around the prey species would immediately leave the area (just like people would). In fact they dont. When photographing birds from a hide I have often seen goshawks and falcons (both hunters that specialise in small birds) fly into the area and settle down, and, after an initial ripple of exitement, the prey species generally carry on much as before. This is because the predators need an element of surprise to catch their prey, so once the predator has been noticed the advantage is lost and the prey species have very little to fear. Both parties know this so energy is not wasted trying to chase a bird that knows you are there. In fact, its probably safer to be in the presence of a predator that you can keep an eye on then it is to be somewhere where you never know where the predators are. This might be why many small birds nest in the presence of raptors.

I tried very hard with plastic snakes to get cockatoos from eating our citrus and destroying our cedar furniture. They made no difference. The problem is the world is full of long thin things which look like snakes but are not in fact snakes, and though we see the resemblence of a plastic snake to the real thing that is a learned response on our part which birds may not share. Maybe, to a bird, its not a snake without movement ?

In terms of how to stop the incessant calling, perhaps the best way is to look where he is calling from, anticipate what he thinks is the good potential nest site, and rearrange that so he has to find somewhere more attractive.

cheers
Arron

[AlexS]

Birds get a big injection of hormones just before breeding season...
Where can I get these injections?:rolleyes:

[Arron]

Where can I get these injections?:rolleyes:
Try a vet. We still have the curtain rod if you want it.

[bryn23]

20 gauge with 7.5 shot:U, if its good enough for clay pigeons, then its good enough for sparrows.

Sparrows aren't native to Australia and are deemed a pest.

But this is only good for rural areas, unless you want to spend time behind a bird cage:U

[NCArcher]

Sparrows are a regular on the menu in Lebanon and Syria. They also eat them, or used to, in France, England, Russia and probably heaps of other European countries.
Plenty of recipes on the internet. Could be one of the options for the next GTG

Also wouldn't bother with the owl, unless you can get a trained one.
We had a magpie and pee wee problem. Up to 20 of them would eat the cat food every day. My cats were raised with a pet magpie so they were trained not to attack black and white birds.
The plastic owl worked for about 2 days till they worked out it wouldn't attack them. Tried CDs on strings as well. That didn't work either. The CDs were more effective if you fired them at the birds like shuriken :roll:

[Chris Parks]

Plenty of recipes on the internet. Could be one of the options for the next GTG


Pass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sparrows are an endangered species Where have the sparrows gone? | Newcastle Herald (http://www.theherald.com.au/story/458232/where-have-the-sparrows-gone/) so you should be grateful you have the noisy little blighter.

[FenceFurniture]

Sparrows are an endangered species Where have the sparrows gone? | Newcastle Herald (http://www.theherald.com.au/story/458232/where-have-the-sparrows-gone/) so you should be grateful you have the noisy little blighter.The author of the piece is a twit (and no doubt on Twitter):
"an inoffensive little bird, unlike the aggressive, strutting Indian myna."

The ones around here sure aren't inoffensive.

Any introduced species is going to cause problems, one way or another, and Australia is littered with way too many feral species of all types of animals. Sparrows would have an impact on small native birds who have to compete with them for food, amongst other things.

[woodPixel]

You could make a few rattlesnake walking sticks like this dude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PPr1xmiVx0

:)

[FenceFurniture]

Quoting from the Birds in Backyards (http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Passer-domesticus) website:
"Although the introduction of the House Sparrow was deliberate :((, and welcomed by many people, it quickly became a major pest, and a reward was paid by the government for the birds and their eggs. Today, the species is so well established in the east that no amount of effort will exterminate the ever-expanding population. The birds however have so far been prevented from establishing themselves in Western Australia, with every bird observed being deliberately destroyed."

[DavidG]

When I was a kid, .177 and kids meant very few sparrows to be found.

[doug3030]

Today, the species is so well established in the east that no amount of effort will exterminate the ever-expanding population

Apparently this was despite my best efforts as a teenager with an air rifle. Talk about a misspent youth. And I know I was not the only one.

Cheers

Doug

[Chris Parks]

I recall reading some years ago that the sparrow numbers were falling due to pollution affecting the eggs they laid. It was thought that the eggs had become very weak and broke easily during incubation. Didn't WA have a sparrow patrol that they used to control the birds spread into that state?

[bsrlee]

You might want to thread some home irrigation pipe through the bushes with a bunch of spray heads. Then when the noisy #^^&* starts up you just turn the hose on 'to water the plants'. He should get the hint that this nesting site is far too wet. And if it fails your plants still get watered as well as fertilized with sparrow poop. :U

[Boringgeoff]

I think that continually harassing the little mongrel should eventually pay off. The problems we had with the parrots (28, Australian Ringneck, Port Lincoln Parrot) eating the lawn are starting to ease. We bought some cheap frisbees from K-mart and my wife kept some at the house and I some at the shed. Whenever we noticed a 28 on the lawn we'd chuck a frisbee and they'd be off. It has now got to the stage they know they're not welcome on the lawn and take off as soon as one of us comes on the scene. Just walking past a window is enough to make them take off where previously they didn't seem to recognise us behind the glass. Other parts of the garden where they don't get shooed away from you can walk past without them taking any notice, so they appear to be learning.
We're very lucky in WA to not have sparrows, having grown up with them in NZ I know what a pest they are.

[NCArcher]

I bought a Nerf disk shooter to discourage the magpies. That was fun :U

[AlexS]

I have a dog to keep the magpies away:roll:

404280

[Chris Parks]

A little off topic but dogs and magpies can sometimes be friends.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoaEBb4IN4Q

[Grumpy John]

Sorry guys, I can't resist. Go the mighty 'pies.


404319

And that's when the fight started :D

[Chesand]

Go the mighty 'pies.
:D

That is an oxymoron if ever there was one. I couldn't resist either. :D

[Grumpy John]

That is an oxymoron if ever there was one. I couldn't resist either. :D


Go the once mighty 'pies.
Edited to reflect the current state of the team.

[FenceFurniture]

So the 'Pies are bloody Sparrows too?

Great.

[rrich]

In a bit of seriousness: Have you considered getting the girls on birth control?

Pigeon control solutions (http://ovocontrol.com/ovocontrol-p/)

[FenceFurniture]

Not a bad idea Rich.