Hi Kristi,
Bummer about the sparrows. I had the same problem last year, where a pair of
house sparrows claimed a box that had a slot opening. It was a side-opening
box, so I decided to open it and leave it open to discourage them from
nesting. It didn't work--they continued building and laid eggs!

There's alot of information out there on house sparrow control, mainly based on the vast experiences of bluebirders. A very good site for information on cavity nesters is www.sialis.org. Look at the HOSP mgmt link.

In a nutshell, you could: put up additional boxes, try and trap the male (although another male could claim it), continue to remove nesting material and hope they give up (that's what I did last year, and swallows ended up using the box after all), or if it's a losing battle, let them nest and addle the eggs so they won't hatch.

Mike

Michael Donahue
Seattle
47.33.11 N 122.18.13 W
320 ft