Tweets,
In Seattle there is little or nothing that will stop the house sparrows.
Last
fall I posted a plee for help in getting rid house sparrows. I tried a
variety of the tubes, perches, and various other contraptions. I now not
only do not use anything but black oil sunflower, but have switched my
feeders to the cling a wing globe feeders. At first the sparows were
thrown, but soon I had 5-6 regular house sparrows along with equal number
of house finches, propping their tails under the feeder and chowing down.
About two weeks ago I finally found one solution to combating house
sparrows. Here it is:
Black-capped Chickadees!! We had an increase from our resident 2
chickadees to an average of 5 for about a week. These birds constantly
were zipping in and out of the feeder and the house sparrows just stood
back and watched in amazement. Unfortunately we are back to our regular 2,
and the problem persists. If anybody has some abundance of BC chickadees
at their feeder I would be most grateful if you could convince them to set
up residence around bitter lake. (I know that I'm only dreaming, but at
least this way the constant problem doesn't depress me as much).

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA