BLUEBIRDS

[GOGETTER]

ANY ONE HAVE NESTING BLUEBIRDS IN THE CITY AREA?  I'VE BEEN READING UP ON GETTING A NESTING PAIR STARTED BUT THE SPARROWS ARE TOUGH TO GET RID OF.. ???

[BearGuide]

I have a pair that has been coming back for 4 years now.  They might have been there before I moved in though.  I have a large hayfield along with a river bottom.  They like the hay field.

[GOGETTER]

Thanks BearGuide for the info.  All I have is the yard.  I did read open areas attrack them.  Guess I gotta move to a more open area.  Oh well, I keep on tryin'.

[BearGuide]

Let me know how it goes.  I love watching them.  Especially when they are just about to land on the fence and the sun hits them just right.  They are an amazing cornflower blue.

[Mayfly]

Any luck with this?

[deadeye]

Last spring I put up a couple blue bird houses.  Within an hour blue birds were in and out of the houses.   On was used by blue birds and the other by tree swallows.   This year the blue birds have been in the houses for a few weeks now.   I have them on a fence over looking a one acre open area surrounded by pines. 

[kenhuntin]

Get rid of the English sparrows any way you can. There used to be as many bluebirds as those imprted jokers.They will kill mama bluebird on her nest by cracking her skull.If you find a nest of sticks and trash remove it .Sparrow eggs are cream color with brown specks. A blue bird nest is made of really fine grass.

[Mayfly]

Get rid of the English sparrows any way you can. There used to be as many bluebirds as those imprted jokers.They will kill mama bluebird on her nest by cracking her skull.If you find a nest of sticks and trash remove it .Sparrow eggs are cream color with brown specks. A blue bird nest is made of really fine grass.

One way to get rid of them is when you know they are in the house you can seneak up to it and put a large sack or bag of some sort over the hole and then the sparrow will fly out and he/she is trapped. Then you can use you imagination with the bag. One trick I learned is that you can then take that bag and put it over the exhaust pipe of your car with the bird still in the bag.

I know this sounds strange but this is what I learned at a nature center that I volunteer at. I volunteer for their bluebird project and I monitor 10  houses weekly. This is what was suggest for me. Birders really hate these sparrows!

[Dotch]

They're not very good swimmers either with the bag tied shut and a brick on top of it in a 5 gallon bucket of water, or so I've been told...

Have been trapping the little so and so's a couple years with pretty good results but every once in awhile they figure out the trap and won't leave the bluebird houses alone. It is then I go into stealth mode on a Saturday afternoon when I have a little free time on my hands and get out the .22 or pellet gun, depending on where the affected house is. Killing the male house sparrows is my primary objective as they are the nest site selecters, builders and the one's that kill the bluebirds or tree swallows. I will shoot either male or female house sparrows though if I get a chance.