House sparrow problem (1 Viewer)

FloLo · Mar 30, 2015

Hi all,

Love watching the birds on the feeder in the garden. A year or so ago we used to get sparrows, blue/coal/great/long tailed tits, green/gold/chaffinches, robins, wrens, etc.

Recently, the only regular visitors are sparrows, blue tit, robin and dunnock. We have a huge amount of house sparrows in our hawthorn hedges, maybe 30-40. As much as it's wonderful to have them, they are bullying the other birds! They don't mind the blue tits but any other bird on the feeder and they chase them off! We had a goldcrest and it must have stayed for about 30 seconds. Saw a Chaffinch in the garden today for the first time in a year and it got chased off pretty quick.

I don't know if there is much I can do to help other bird species? There is wild seed, peanuts and niger seed out. The sparrows even hog the peanuts! Also they are very messy and seed goes all over the floor and has now attracted rats. I have rabbits so not ideal really!

Any advice?

ChrisKten · Mar 30, 2015

FloLo said:
Hi all,

Love watching the birds on the feeder in the garden. A year or so ago we used to get sparrows, blue/coal/great/long tailed tits, green/gold/chaffinches, robins, wrens, etc.

Recently, the only regular visitors are sparrows, blue tit, robin and dunnock. We have a huge amount of house sparrows in our hawthorn hedges, maybe 30-40. As much as it's wonderful to have them, they are bullying the other birds! They don't mind the blue tits but any other bird on the feeder and they chase them off! We had a goldcrest and it must have stayed for about 30 seconds. Saw a Chaffinch in the garden today for the first time in a year and it got chased off pretty quick.

I don't know if there is much I can do to help other bird species? There is wild seed, peanuts and niger seed out. The sparrows even hog the peanuts! Also they are very messy and seed goes all over the floor and has now attracted rats. I have rabbits so not ideal really!

Any advice?

Some people will say that Sparrows are in decline, and you're lucky to have so many in your garden

But I know what it's like to see one species bullying others, and it's good to see a mixture of birds feeding... and they all need a bit of help at times.

The best way I know is to feed Sunflower Hearts, as Sparrows aren't fond of them. They will eat them if hungry, but they don't tend to hog the feeders as much. A few years ago I had 50+ Sparrows, but hardly any Chaffinches, and I fed mixed seed in the feeders; now I feed Sunflower Hearts and I've at least 10 Chaffinches visiting each day, and the Sparrows are still about locally, just not at my feeders as often.

Oh, and Chaffinches like Peanut Butter with seeds mixed in, Sparrows don't seem as keen on it (I've a male Blackcap that's been visiting for the peanut butter this year too)

grobble · Mar 31, 2015

ChrisKten said:
The best way I know is to feed Sunflower Hearts, as Sparrows aren't fond of them.

The House Sparrows in my garden eat very little else! Luckily there are a pair of Wood Pigeons that are industrious about cleaning up all their spillage,

ChrisKten · Mar 31, 2015

grobble said:
The House Sparrows in my garden eat very little else! Luckily there are a pair of Wood Pigeons that are industrious about cleaning up all their spillage,

Weird, but I can't say I'm surprised

ovenbird43 · Mar 31, 2015

The best solution might be to offer a variety of feeder types and foods - for example put up a tube feeder with thistle for finches, sparrows tend not to use that type of feeder or go for thistle much, especially if they have other options. Also maybe a mesh feeder without perches, which tits can cling to but the sparrows would have trouble using.

FloLo · Apr 5, 2015

Thanks everyone for your replies!
To be honest I think the sparrows eat most seeds - they even cling to the peanut feeder!! I will see if feeding just sunflower hearts will do, I have had other people suggest this.
Have had a lot of blue tits which is great, and had a pair of jays which is always nice to see!

House sparrow problem (1 Viewer)

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FloLo

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ChrisKten

It's true, I quite like Pigeons

grobble

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ChrisKten

It's true, I quite like Pigeons

ovenbird43

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FloLo

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