Anybody use Gilbertson PVC boxes? (1 Viewer)

[Fowl Mouth]

I'm getting ready to build a couple of these for the yard, typical mid-winter-waiting-for-the-spring project. I'm wondering what the real world experiences are regarding house sparrows. They completely bullied out three different interested Eastern Bluebird pairs last year. Admittedly I didn't realize the tendancy of these sparrows to dominate available boxes, when I first put my classic style boxes up last year. The Gilbertson box seems promising on paper. Or am I putting too much weight into the box design?

 

[Joe1980]

I've tried them all, with no success. I've hung some pretty wacky looking bluebird houses, all claiming to deter house sparrows, but those rascals always move in. When people ask "what in the world is that thing?"......I just say "it's a bluebird proof sparrow house". So, you can try it, but in my experience, 10 times out of 10, if house sparrows are present, they will take the house, and at a minimum shoo away any other birds.

 

[Fowl Mouth]

Thanks for the response, Joe. Although I'll admit that's not what I was hoping for, it's what I expected.

 

[Joe1980]

By all means, don't throw in the towel. You can give it a try, especially if you are seeing bluebirds. It's just a lot of work if you have house sparrows around, because they are far more persistant then bluebirds. I'm not one of those crazy bluebird people that lives to kill house sparrows, but I do deter them, and not let them nest. I'm just not the type to start killing birds because they aren't what I want in my nestboxes. To me that's not right, but I don't hold it against others.

 

[Fowl Mouth]

I'm with you, Joe. Killing is not a morale answer, IMO. For me, I'd love to promote the nesting of such a beautiful, and more importantly, endemic species. But I'm not about to catch and kill House Sparrows because they were brought here under the wrong means 160 or so years ago. But passive means are great, if they work. I might try the PVC houses anyway, and try the "x" mark fishing line technique on the tops of the boxes. I did note that the Sparrows had a tendency to perch above the boxes more than inside of them.

 

[Joe1980]

I've noticed that also. They sit on the roof an hollar all day. The only problem I have is that my nestboxes are kind of nestled into bushes or trees, giving them a place to perch besides the roof. I suppose I could move them, but then I have a bird house on a post, sitting out in the open, which to me isn't pleasing to the eye. It also make for yet another obsticle for me to mow around. Outside of shooing them out of my nestboxes, I've just learned to live with them.