House sparrows dominate my yard...(Northern California) (1 Viewer)

[Crow19]

Hi everyone -- I've been birding for just a few months and have setup various feeders and a nice birdbath. So far my most common visitors are Mourning Doves, Scrub-Jays, and House Sparrows. It seems like more and more sparrows are showing up and I'm starting to worry that they are keeping other types of birds away. They empty a feeder extremely quickly! I would like to attract some other kinds of birds...any tips?

Thanks!

 

[MattDinUtah]

I was hoping to see an answer to this one, my story is almost exactly yours, more and more sparrows every day, seemingly. I did put up a finch feeder in addition to my first feeder and am getting more of those now, and I have been adding more sunflower seeds to the mix I feed and that seems to bring in more jays and house finches as well. I just put up a suet feeder but only the jays are hitting that as far as I've seen. Have you figured out anything more in the two weeks since you posted?

 

[Crow19]

I was hoping to see an answer to this one, my story is almost exactly yours, more and more sparrows every day, seemingly. I did put up a finch feeder in addition to my first feeder and am getting more of those now, and I have been adding more sunflower seeds to the mix I feed and that seems to bring in more jays and house finches as well. I just put up a suet feeder but only the jays are hitting that as far as I've seen. Have you figured out anything more in the two weeks since you posted?

Hi Matt. In the time since this post I have setup a platform feeder that the Doves and Jays seem to enjoy using. Plus it keeps me from having to throw food on the ground for them. Sparrows still dominate the area but just today I saw a Western Tanager using the birdbath. That was a nice sight.

 

[Aotus]

i've been dealing with this too. last year this time i had few sparrows, my regulars were black capped chickadees, house finches, goldfinches, red- and white- breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, a pileated woodpecker, and a few other occasional visitors. this year, 20-100 house sparrows that mostly only the larger birds will push through. The chickadees and downy's will sometimes dare to cross them too but the goldfinches are easily supplanted and the nuthatches stay away.

I'm currently experimenting with different feeders. the 'squirrel buster' feeder from wild birds is adjustable (weight and perch length) and I can at least make it harder for the sparrows using that, so there are fewer around. Not a success story yet but small victories, on occasion. Unfortunately the nuthatches haven't tried the new feeders.

 

[etudiant]

A partial solution is to use feeders that the birds have to cling to upside down, while the top is covered by a close fitting rain shell.
Sparrows have a hard time doing that, chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers don't. Works with suet and the like, not with loose seed.
However, even seed feeders can be made less inviting to sparrows, just remove the perches. Native birds are used to scrounging food from little holes, they don't need the perch starlings and house sparrows are accustomed to.
That said, sparrows are impressively adaptable, you say 'jump', they will say 'how high?'. Hopefully your home is surrounded by more attractive sparrow dining opportunities so that your efforts to pull their welcome mat are recognized.
If you're the main food source on the block, the only option is to have sparrow unfriendly feeders, even though that limits the range of potential visitors.

 

[Oldnintheway]

A partial solution is to use feeders that the birds have to cling to upside down, while the top is covered by a close fitting rain shell.
Sparrows have a hard time doing that, chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers don't. Works with suet and the like, not with loose seed.
However, even seed feeders can be made less inviting to sparrows, just remove the perches. Native birds are used to scrounging food from little holes, they don't need the perch starlings and house sparrows are accustomed to.
That said, sparrows are impressively adaptable, you say 'jump', they will say 'how high?'. Hopefully your home is surrounded by more attractive sparrow dining opportunities so that your efforts to pull their welcome mat are recognized.
If you're the main food source on the block, the only option is to have sparrow unfriendly feeders, even though that limits the range of potential visitors.

Thanks for that. I clipped the plastic perches off from my tube feeder, I fill it with sunflower seeds, and the chickadees & nuthatches are very happy! The house sparrows still manage to gain perch on occasion, with much struggle, but they don't sit there and empty the feeder as before.

 

[Aotus]

i've just made a drastic change - all feeders except the upside-down suet feeders are down for cleaning... for a week or more. a couple sparrows immediately adapted to the upside down feeders, but most just sit around contemplating the disaster at hand. I hope I don't have to keep them down for more than a week, but maybe I should, just in case. I like the perch-removal idea. I've tried shortening them, to good effect, but didn't;t take them all the way off. maybe that's next.

Cheers.