Hi Tweets; saw an interesting confrontation this a.m. at the c/o Hiway 99 &
145th N.E.--two adult starlings were attacking a couple of house sparrow
nests that were tucked under the edge of an old gas station roof. After a
few seconds several other sparrows showed up and descended upon the
starlings and drove them to the ground where they continued their assault <
or defense if you prefer > to the point where one of the starlings barely
escaped. The sparrows next flew up to the nests to check on the damage and
one adult male and one adult female landed on top of the roof and actually
started to "strut" sort of; they looked a little ridiculous since it is hard
to strut if you can only "hop".

BTW, I've been able to defeat the sparrows at my nest boxes by making the
holes 1-1/4" only and keep the boxes below 8' high. The swallows, tree and
vg, will nest in the boxes as low as 4', but prefer about 6'-7' high or much
higher like 10'-20' which the sparrows don't seem to like, at least in this
neck of the woods. However, any building that provides "sparrow habitat"
regardless of height will be colonized, as you already know!

C-YUH, D->






At 04:21 PM 06/29/99 +0000, you wrote:
>The House sparrow(s?) struke this morning with an attempted hostile
>takeover of a Violet Green swallow box. I don't know if it was the
>same bird all morning, but he was sneaky and persistent.
>Although he was discouraged with BB fire, he repeatedly entered the
>box and tried to shove the nestlings out the hole.
>I heard their cries of protest and picked up birds not yet ready to
>fly from the ground and put them back into the nest. I tried to
>stay close by doing yard work in the vacinity, but as soon as I was
>out of sight, he flew back in and did his dirty work.
>I attempted to discourage him with a BB gun, but I failed to hit him,
>andafter about an hour, went on the other side of the garage and
>harassed another box.
>the lesson learned is that the sparrow is much more successful with
>the style of box that has a hole in the bottom. He can fly in much
>too easily and it is a snap to drag the little ones out and toss them
>into the bushes below. The other style has the narrow slot on the
>front, that the sparrow supposedly can't get in - he can, but it is
>harder . The parents sucessfully defended this box, because he has
>to hang on to the outside before he can squeeze in and they dive bomb
>and make it hard on him. Also, once he is inside, it is much harder
>to get the babies out that little slot.
>Clarice Clark
>jbroadus at seanet.com
>Puyallup, WA. 98371
>
W.Darryl Thompson