Hello,

I have House Sparrows in some of the boxes here and at my parents and grand parents but their being thinned out by the Starlings. They come to the hole and it looks like the chicks think their the parents because they try and get food. The Starlings then take off with the chicks. I've had Robins in the past and the Starlings did the same to them.
The nest boxes here are sitting on my deck, I'm in an apartment complex on the top floor. Starlings are in the eves but do not come on my deck.

Bryan O
Tacoma Wa.
obryan214 at yahoo.com
mgd at u.washington.edu wrote:
There are certainly lots of accounts of House Sparrows taking over nest boxes that native birds are using. One would assume that this would impact native bird populations, but we don???t know for sure. Maybe the displaced birds were able to nest elsewhere, assuming that they weren???t killed (see below). Probably not, given the shortage of cavities in urban areas, but for sake of argument let???s say that displaced natives are able to nest elsewhere during that breeding season.

A more direct impact on native bird populations would be through House Sparrows puncturing eggs, killing nestlings, and even killing adult birds in the nest box. It is well documented that they do this. For eyewitness accounts and photos (warning, they are gruesome) see: http://www.sialis.org/hospattacks.htm

Mike Donahue
Seattle

47.33.11 N 122.18.13 W
320 ft




_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters



---------------------------------
Love cheap thrills? Enjoy PC-to-Phone calls to 30+ countries for just 2?/min with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.