Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Don't mess with my Wrens.

Not sure of the entrance size but a sparrow can fit. No perch peg.

But these sparrows were attacking the bird when it left the house. They would gang up and when the wren tried to get back in the house would go after it and try and peck it. Then one or two of them would come back and land nearby and on the top of the birdhouse and wait.

It's winner take all every morning when I put the corn birdseed and peanuts out between the squirrels, bluejays, crows, blackbirds and cardinals

Sounds like the house sparrows wanted the house.
Entrance hole has to be small enough so the sparrows can't get in.

We have Scrub and Steller’s but no Blue jays.




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We've been getting many June bugs in the pool skimmer. We just toss them onto the patio. Blue Jays and Cardinals have them cleaned up within minutes.

Not saying it didn’t happen but I have never seen house sparrows gang up like that on another species.

What does happen all the time is that groups of about two to five male house sparrows will closely pursue a female, to the point of appearing to attack her, as a normal part of their courtship ritual. The females are plain brown in color and usually a bit smaller. When assaulted by multiple males like that they do flee, as if for their lives.

No harm done if you kill the house sparrows, they are just vermin with wings anyway.

Why do objects that you look at appear to be the color that they are?

🤣

Will you BBQ or Fry them?

It was definitely a wren by the pictures and not a house sparrow. And listening to the calls I think it is a Northern wren. It is a noisy little bird that will hiss at you or sound like a machine gun if you get too close to the house. Hard to describe the exact sound but you know its mad.

I did what someone suggested and made a smaller entrance hole. I hope there is enough time for them to come back and make a nest this year.

I never thought once about shooting a little tweet sparrow but now they are open game and will be shot on site. I always wondered why states exempt them from the song bird game laws.

They wreck nests around here all of the time.

Had a nest on a downspouts last year from some bird I don't recognize. 4 of those little pricks were destroying the nest. I had the short barrel on the 1100 and got 3 of them with 2 shots.

Ol Fred never came back to finish the nest destruction.

I should have said "refracted", but I thought that might be too much science for a shot gunning yard birds thread.

The Jays in my old neighborhood were a little different color!

Ya know JOG, ever hear the expression to “stay in your lane”?

Just sayin’

What’s next… “pik tuk tuk…. pik tuk tuk…”?

Success! I put a one inch entrance hole reducer on my birdhouse and was hoping the big change wouldn't scare off the wren. But today I see it bringing in sticks to make a new nest and sitting at the entrance calling. I also saw two sparrows start to fly to the birdhouse entrance but turned and flew away when they saw the hole was smaller and they haven't been hanging around.

So far so good. Now he just needs to find a girlfriend.

As a kid armed with a Daisy, I was given parental permission to work out on the eastern Blue Jays in Saint James, Tenn. I subsequently witnessed a jay grabbing a sparrow and snapping its neck. Not seen anything similar since, but I'm on the west side of the country now.

Delkal:

Our wrens here are famous for stuffing every nearby cavity with twigs to deter competition. Had one last year that nested in the neighbor's yard but filled 4 of our 6 houses with sticks to keep out the riff raff. I'm fine with that, as like you, the alternative is a continuous battle with English Sparrows.

I've seen the same activity with houses up in the woods near our local Boy Scout cabin.

One final wren deal: On a mule deer scouting run I noticed a bleached cow skull wired into a tree about 6 ft from the ground in camp. A few minutes later I saw a wren hop down the spinal cord hole. Later examination revealed a nest therein. Tough to find a cavity in a young aspen stand, so the wren had to make do.

We presently have a pair of Mt Bluebirds successfully defending a house out back. Cookie will get some pics when they get well established.

I've got a pair of Eastern Bluebirds working on their second clutch of the spring. First round they had 4 eggs and hatched then fledged 3 which are still hanging around in the giant live oak tree out back. I haven't peeked yet but momma BB is sitting again.

Why the fishing line????

Wrens are great to have around, and seem to be able to hold their own with anything.

Had an Eastern Phoebe that was seranading us all week, but found it had built a nest on top of an electrical outlet under a raised porch, so I removed it. Phoebe seems to have moved on.

Last 2 days have had a brown thrasher singing all morning, boy he can belt it out.

Have been hearing orioles chattering so put out a feeder with grape jelly, took them about 10 minutes to find it.

So are robins..

The line keeps the sparrows out of the nesting box. I read where they don't like it and it doesn't bother the bluebirds at all. For two springs in a row we had bluebird eggs removed from the nest and destroyed by English sparrows. I read online somewhere about adding fishing line to the house to deter the sparrows so I figured I'd give it a try. This is the third spring in a row with successful hatches after adding the fishing line. I can't say why it works but it does.