• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Need some help, House Sparrows vs Tree Swallows (1 Viewer)

Amy5

Active member
Hi All -

This is my 1st spring with bird houses up and when I placed my bird house right next to our house, I did not realize I was putting out the welcome mat for the house sparrows. After doing research online and talking to local birders, they told me to NEVER let house sparrows nest in your houses. So I ran the fishing line on top of the house and around the entrance. And have been removing the nest when house sparrows still move in.... Then yesterday I was so thrilled to see a pair of Tree Swallows claiming the house as theirs. But after doing some research, I read that House Sparrows will actually go into the box and kill the Tree Swallow babies and maybe even trap and kill the adults in there. So my question is, has anyone had any problems with house sparrows doing this? I live in a small suburban yard and I am shocked at all to even see Tree Swallows here. If I leave the house up, am I just asking for trouble? Or would it be better to give the Tree Swallows a chance and keep the house where it is? Some of the web sites I saw even said to go as far as trapping and killing House Sparrows, do I really have to go that far???

Just as I was writing this the Tree Swallow flew into the bird house to check it out. They are so pretty!
 
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. In spite of their gentle appearance, Tree Sparrows are themselves fierce competitors for nest sites--they’ve been known to kill nestling bluebirds for example--& might or might not be able to hold their own against your House Sparrows. Do you have House Wrens in your yard by any chance? If so the swallows might be in for trouble from that quarter as well, since the House Wren’s reputation for aggression towards rival hole nesters is at least as bad as that of the House Sparrow.
 
Last edited:
Hi Amy,

I'm a purple martin landlord. I have two gourd racks up with a total of 32 gourds. Sparrows are a problem everywhere. To be successful, i think you will have to try and eliminate the sparrows. I would set out traps if i were you. There are many places online where you can buy traps or plans on how to build one.
 
Hi everyone -

To fugl, no I have not seen any House Wren’s around my yard. And infact I did see the Tree Swallow chase away the house sparrow today... but that was outside the bird house.

To Lonny, what exactly do you do with the sparrows you catch in a trap?
 
Last edited:
Hi Amy,

I'm afraid my answer is not the one you are looking for. But here it is anyway, humanely destroy them. Catching and releasing them someplace else, will onlybe someone else's problem. They may even come back if not released very far away. I wish i had a better answer for you, but i don't. The english house sparrow and european starling are two very problematic birds, both being cavity nesting birds. I'm a purple martin landlord. I used to have gourds with the round entrance holes. Starlings were horrible. I gotrid of all the round hole gourds and replaced them with starling resistant holes, which works excellent. The sparrow is slightly smaller than the martin, so they are still a problem. I have quite a few pair of martins this year, and will say "there is strength in numbers".

If you can't bring yourself to destroy the sparrows, and you can access the nest safely, then do a weekly nest check and tear the sparrow nests out. I still do weekly nests checks and tear out any sparrow nest i see. In one week a sparrow can build a complete nest and lay as many as three eggs (maybe more). There eggs will be a tanish earth tone color with darker speckles. I'm pretty sure your tree swallows eggs are the samecolor as my martins which are pure white.

Whatever you do i wish you nothing but success and good luck. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me or even email me.

Best,
Lonny
 
Indeed, killing’s the only answer, probably before you’re done a lot of killing since well-established House Sparrow populations aren’t necessarily that easy to eradicate. In view of this, if it were me, I’d just let it go. House Sparrows have had a long association with human beings in the old world & in that sense are “native” to your backyard in a way that many indigenous species--like Tree Swallows--will never be. So why not just enjoy the sparrows? They’re not demons after all, but just birds like any other.
 
And see this (there’s no specific mention of House Sparrows in the article, but I bet they’re big brained)--http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9468000/9468306.stm
 
I've been watching my tree swallows for days now and so far they have not allowed the house sparrows to get into the house. I also am trying to scare the house sparrows away when I see them, the tree swallows do not seem to be scared of me so it's been working so far.
 
Just ran into the same problem here in Pa. A House sparrow was nesting and a group of green tree swallows came to look at the house. I helped matters a little by removing the house sparrow nest and the tree swallows came back the next day, it looked as though they may take over the box. Now the box is empty, no sparrows and the tree swallows have not been seen for two days. I was hoping for some pictures of them.
 
I've been in luck so far. My tree swallows moved in and she even laid the 1st egg this morning. But after reading about the damage a house sparrow can do I did buy and install the "sparrow spooker." But I've also not seen my tree swallow go back into the box all day. It might keep any and all birds away.

Gary, did your swallows come back? I hope so. It's been a real joy to get to know mine.
 
Great news, I woke up this morning to see Mommy flying in and out of the house as normal. No house sparrows yet, so far this "spooker" is working.
 
I've been in luck so far. My tree swallows moved in and she even laid the 1st egg this morning. But after reading about the damage a house sparrow can do I did buy and install the "sparrow spooker." But I've also not seen my tree swallow go back into the box all day. It might keep any and all birds away.

Gary, did your swallows come back? I hope so. It's been a real joy to get to know mine.

Yes they came back and if you look on the my post from "my five acres" under "your birding day" you can see the pic along with the post of the male tree swallow on the outside of the box. They are nesting and soon if not already starting to feed the chicks. they are nesting in a box which is on a pole two feet off the shoreline of my pond. Thier food source is right at thier doorstop.
 
Sparrow be gone!

"Snotty" the bully male sparrow showed up right after our tree swallows returned to our birdhouse on the deck for the third year. They (the TRES) are delightful birds and talk to me when I am on the deck but take no offense to my being within 5 feet of them.
But Snotty was a different bird as I have learned from the blogs. He didn't want to nest in the house but didn't want the tree swallows there either. He would get in the house whenever the TRES were near to claim his territory. Different sized openings did not discourage Snotty in the least. I tried building a sparrow trap as seen on the web. No luck.
Finally, I rigged a trap door which blocked the entrance hole to the house pulled into place with a long string from the slider to the deck. Yesterday, Snotty made his last entrance and once in hand, his final exit.
The TRES are busy nesting without interference.
 
Not sure what type of property you have, but if there are a lot of nest boxes, as we have in our city park, the nest boxes closest to buildings will have the house sparrows. In our neighborhood, there are houses and a bike path behind them and then a little piece of wetland and prairie. I have seen bluebirds around the nest boxes and one that I actually opened, it had bluebird eggs. A week later they were gone and house sparrows have settled in. These boxes are still within 30 ft of the homes. I met one box owner once, finally, and suggested to her to put up a pair of boxes and one close and one further out. Her husband has to mow her a path to it. It is on public land. I wished her luck.

The bluebirds and swallows both like areas with nothing, no trees even, just tall grass.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 8 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top