• 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.

Birds you don't like... (1 Viewer)

Maroon Jay said:
House Sparrows and any other introduced bird that people have moved to another country where they don't belong. House Sparrows kill Swallows, Bluebirds and any other cavity-nesting bird. They go into their house and kill the whole family and even use the bodies for nesting material. I have seen them do it and I have seen them clamp onto a Purple's Martin's belly and drag it to the ground and kill it. Bluebirds used to be a common backyard bird in North America until the House Sparrows arrived. I don't have a problem with birds killing other birds if it is a natural behaviour. I don't consider the House Sparrows to be natural because people brought them here. They are not a native species. I am going to England in August and I am looking forward to House Sparrows that I will enjoy seeing in their natural habitat.
Click to expand...

+1 :t:

For the same reasons, mine would be the:
Indian Mynah
Starling
Sparrow

Maybe they are wonderful in their native countries, but out here they are just pests. Sky rats. Infested with lice. Gang Killers, Home Invaders, and Displacers of little (and some not so little!) native birds. At least various raptors knock the odd ones off. :cat:

As for our Australian Magpie - lovely ! o:) (unless you're a postie on his bike trying to deliver the mail ! :) :eek!:
Even better is a young Pied Butcher bird softly imitating the warbling of a Magpie on a cool early Spring morning :) :king: :t:


Oh, almost forgot - not overly fond of the 'looks' of the famous "Bin Chicken" either ! :-O



Chosun :gh:
 
No reason to be defensive about disliking specific species. You either like them or you don't. For me my only dislikes are House Sparrows and European Starling for the same reasons already given by others. I'm not sure about Wild Turkeys because they aren't native here although there are people who are stubbornly continuing to release them here specifically for hunting. Obviously not the fault of the birds but a potential major problem.
 
F***ing Song Thrush....... with its ear piercing song and annoying repetitive phrases at 04:00 every morning outside my bedroom window......even audible through double glazing!

I used to rather dislike feral Geese too but my local flock do pull in the odd goodie in winter for me to patch tick so not quite so bothered about them now.

And yeah......agree Woodpigeon's are poor form in many ways (impersonating better birds, noisy, greedy, make you jump when you flush them, ugly chicks, etc...what is there to like apart from the taste? - and i don't even like that!)

Dean
 
Maroon Jay said:
House Sparrows and any other introduced bird that people have moved to another country where they don't belong.
Click to expand...
Egyptian Geese (also Raccoons, Raccoon Dogs, Muskrats, and wolf-dog hybrids, but they're not technically birds I suppose), for the same reason. They also have a really horrible and loud call. Not terribly fond of seeing Canada Geese everywhere, either.
Made worse by the fact that the animal rights brigade tries their best to slander and obstruct anyone who is tasked with removing these invasive species.
 
Can I list a specific bird I don’t like? I’d like to give a shout out to the woodpecker who likes power drilling into my house on occasion...
 
My wife dislikes siskins for some reason, particularly males - I think its a combination of facial expression and habit of monopolising the nyger feeder. This animosity doesn't extend to redpolls and goldfinches, both of which she positively enjoys seeing.
I'm with @Sangahyando on the dislike of feral geese. It depresses me to see feral greylags and Canada geese around a gravel pit in summer, compared to the uplifting sight of several 1000 migratory pinkfeet or barnacle geese in winter. Not keen on invasive alien species on principle, although this doesn't extend to ring-necked parakeets, which I delight in seeing on visits to London. If I lived somewhere where they were dismantling my bird feeders and displacing native species from nest holes I might change my opinions though.
 
RoadsterGirlie said:
Can I list a specific bird I don’t like? I’d like to give a shout out to the woodpecker who likes power drilling into my house on occasion...
Click to expand...



Awww, you're lucky, he wants to live with you!! :-O3:) I wish a Woodie would try to come live at my house, send him *here*!!

But on a serious note, I have read a lot of stories about woodies pecking at houses. They say if they are pecking at your house, they have claimed it as their territory. If you want him to stop pecking at your house, you could try hanging a nest box near where he's pecking and he will probably stop ruining your house and live in the box. You will have to figure out the type of woodpecker that's doing this before making/ordering him a box since you want the box to be the right size. If it's the wrong size, he probably won't stop pecking the house.


For a medium sized pecker, like the red-bellied, hairy, or red-headed woodies, you could order them this: https://www.amazon.com/Coveside-Con...d=1532608543&sr=8-6&keywords=woodpecker+house


Or maybe he's a bigger, super cool Northern Flicker: https://www.amazon.com/Coveside-100...&qid=1532608867&sr=1-3&keywords=flicker+house

Or if he's a big awesome pileated woody, you may have to build one of these for him because I can't find any on amazon. They say that you can use a screech owl box for pileated, and they DO have those on amazon if you really didn't want to build one yourself (there are dozens of nest box plans for this online). https://www.amazon.com/Woodlink-OWL...id=1532609587&sr=8-4&keywords=screech+owl+box

They also make a number of various deterrent items for "scaring them" away, though I'm not sure how well any of these items work.

Good luck, I'm terribly jealous!
 
Johann Sebastian Bach said:
Birds with monotonous calls/songs.

Wood pigeon is top of my list because they sit on phone cables outside my window and hoo-hoo-HOO-hoo-hoo from dawn until dusk, cr@p all over cars and eat everything that falls from my feeders.
Collared doves come a very close second.

Peter
Click to expand...

I don't know what it is, Peter, but I can handle Woodpigeon, sometimes finding them quite soothing, unless they're close enough for me to hear the intake of breath - as I could while camping at Spurn during the week. But Collared Dove...oh dear. My trials and tribulations with their excessively nasal vocalisations are well-known amongst the islanders on St Agnes, where the species is far, far too common for my fragile sanity first thing of an early spring morning. If you are familiar with the Pink Panther movies, then you may picture my 'relationship' with Collared Doves to be akin to that of Chief Inspector Dreyfus with his bumbling subordinate Clouseau- they have the potential to sentence me to a life inside a straitjacket, locked in a padded cell. There are birds in Asia known as 'brainfever birds' due to the effect their monotonous frenzied calling has on the sensitive human brain and Collared Doves, without any doubt, are the European equivalent, IMO. Basically, I've had to leave St Agnes for the majority of the past five summers in order to avoid going on a mass killing spree. You've admitted your footballing allegiance, so forgive me if I say, it only got worse for me when Mark Cocker rendered their call phonetically as Un-I-ted, Un-I-ted.

I'm quite surprised that somebody has called out Song Thrush as a least favourite since I consider their vocalisations to be among the most evocative in the birding world; I have done ever since I was eight years old. I don't know where Wren song fits in your pantheon of bird sounds, JSB - maybe it's a bit too punk rock for you? - but again, it's a sound I never tire of despite their abundance on Scilly and the frequency with which they greet the day with their inimitable incantations. Not so a friend of mine I work with in the winter time. He describes their song as 'a racket'. Unfortunately he's too young to be familiar with Fawlty Towers but that doesn't stop me from muttering darkly along the lines of '...that would be Brahms third racket, then, would it, Jeff?'
 
Ostrich. There's just something about them. Have you ever watched one go to the bathroom? Their intestines look like they're inverting out of their cloaca! Not to get religious - but even the old testament calls them abominations to god.

The males do have a pretty cool courtship display though so I suppose they're not all bad....
 
Larry Sweetland said:
And there's me thinking you were going to mention.....no I won't do it.....Oh alright then.....Black Grasswens ;)
Click to expand...

I think you deserved that, BBB, after your Jacobin remark!! What fabulous birds: and, yes, they chase off other hummers - but they're not the only ones.

Larry: cruel though!
 
All of the introduced species in the U.K.
Particularly Egyptian Geese who squabble and fight through the Tern nests.
and Ring necked parakeets. Locally it was nice to see the first pair on the feeders about four years ago. Now up to seventeen have been sighted locally.
Jackdaws and B.H. Gulls who chase off the small waders( apparently, just because they can!)

Name me an "Innocent bird". They're all guilty of something!
 
Definitely House Sparrows for the same reason as others have said in this forum: invasive, unnatural, and too common especially in my area.
 
Maroon Jay said:
House Sparrows and any other introduced bird that people have moved to another country where they don't belong. House Sparrows kill Swallows, Bluebirds and any other cavity-nesting bird. They go into their house and kill the whole family and even use the bodies for nesting material. I have seen them do it and I have seen them clamp onto a Purple's Martin's belly and drag it to the ground and kill it. Bluebirds used to be a common backyard bird in North America until the House Sparrows arrived. I don't have a problem with birds killing other birds if it is a natural behaviour. I don't consider the House Sparrows to be natural because people brought them here. They are not a native species. I am going to England in August and I am looking forward to House Sparrows that I will enjoy seeing in their natural habitat.
Click to expand...

By the way there is a current thread devoted to house sparrows, might want to weigh in there.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 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.

Similar threads

J
  • Poll
Do you count heard only birds on your life list?
2 3 4
Replies
70
Views
2K
Lisa W
Lisa W
S
Is Slimbridge wetlands the Mecca of bird spotting in the Uk?😄
2 3
Replies
51
Views
3K
She’ll not av feathers on
S
D
Rarities you just don‘t get excited for
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
Andy Lakin
A
Leafbringer
Unpopular/underrated birds you like
Replies
9
Views
980
Patudo
P
M
Bird You Have Taken for Granted
Replies
15
Views
1K
maplekong
M

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top