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Thu, Mar 23, 06 at 14:49
| I moved into a new house at the start of January and immediately proceeded to put up some suet baskets and birdfeeders. At first I was seeing cardinals, chickadees, juncos and redpolls. But during this time I also cut down a lot of overgrown shrubs and piled the brush at the back of my yard. Now all I ever see is house sparrows. They have flocked to the brush pile and I only other birds I see on a regular basis are a pair of chickadees that feed at the finch feeder and once in awhile are able to steal a sunflower seed (black oil only) from the feeder. The damn house sparrows are even eating the suet. The suet has millet and milo in it...is this why?
At first it was the squirrels keeping the woodpeckers away from the suet and now the sparrows!!?? Will getting rid of the brush pile make them leave? Or is it the suet ingredients that they are after? Should I be switching to safflower in the feeder? Please advise. Thanks. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Milo and millet will draw house sparrows. They do not prefer saflower. It is better to stick with more expensive mixes and not to put any kind of bread or other food scraps out if you do not want to attract them. |
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| Also, remove the sanctuary of the brushpile. |
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| You might also try a device called Sparrow Free Magic Halo (described in the link below). It's hard to find, but I've had mine up for a couple months and have had a drastic decrease in house sparrows. It's funny to watch them try to decide if it's safe to go near it. I've also changed the feed I use, too, which I'm sure helps. But they were still visiting the feeders before the halo was put up (even w/ the new food), and after the halo has been up, there are only a couple that come back, and they stay on the ground most of the time. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Magic Halo
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