Sparrows, being highly destructive birds, not only adversely affect your living areas but also pose a threat to other birds. If you keep different birds in your birdhouse, you should protect them.
This is because sparrows not only eat expensive bird food, but can also kill other birds. Therefore, protecting birdhouses should be your priority to protect expensive food and other birds.
Now, it is easy to keep the aggressive sparrows away from your birdhouses through the following techniques.
- Use an upside-down feeder.
- Regularly monitor the nest boxes.
- Eliminate the favorite food of the sparrows
- Place the birds in an open area.
- Eliminate food sources near the birdhouse.
- Keep sparrow-resistant boxes near birdhouses
- Select a nest box that resists the entry of sparrows
- Use a birdhouse with no perches
- Hang or keep the birdhouse at a certain height
- Try to use a birdhouse made of PVC material
Prevention of the birdhouses is necessary to avoid any harm to other birds along with food. Otherwise, you can face a loss of your money. To fully understand the implementing process, here is a detailed explanation of techniques for protecting birdhouses.
Contents
- 1 Use an upside-down feeder:
- 2 Regularly monitor the nest boxes:
- 3 Eliminate the favorite food of sparrows in the birdhouse:
- 4 Place the birdhouses in an open area:
- 5 Eliminate the food and water sources near the birdhouses:
- 6 Select a birdhouse that resists the entry of sparrows:
- 7 Hang or keep the birdhouse at a certain height:
- 8 Try to use a birdhouse made of PVC material:
Use an upside-down feeder:
Protect your birdhouses by using birdhouses that are unattractive to sparrows. Birds generally love a feeder where they can easily access food and be comfortable. If they feel uncomfortable about birdhouses, they show no interest.
Considering this situation, it is recommended to use an inverted feeder. It is a small sized feeder with a wire grid underneath. This type of feeder only allows access to the bird from underneath it.
This type of feeder makes entry difficult for sparrows. Moreover, sparrows find it difficult to get food from such inverted feeders. So sparrows avoid such feeders for their food and shelter.
Regularly monitor the nest boxes:
Regular monitoring of birdhouses is a very smart technique to keep sparrows away. We know that birds can nest in any comfortable place. Birdhouses top the list which means sparrows prefer birdhouses for nesting.
If you have a birdhouse on your property, check it daily to make sure it is free of sparrow nests. If you ever find nesting material in your birdhouse, first identify whether it is sparrow nesting material or not.
Sparrow nests are made of grass, stalks, hay, paper etc. Remove such nests from the birdhouse immediately using covered hands or a lifting device. Throw it in a distant area and keep an eye on the bird house to avoid more sparrow nests.
Eliminate the favorite food of sparrows in the birdhouse:
Sparrows always visit birdhouses for their favorite food. You could say that placing the sparrow’s favorite food in your birdhouse acts as a welcome sign for the sparrows. Sparrows like to eat cereal grains, rice, cracked corn, wheat and oats.
So, if you keep this type of food in your birdhouses, the birds will definitely visit them. Instead of keeping such food in the birdhouse, put peanuts, suet and nyjer. Sparrows dislike such food, so when they come to eat, they fly away without eating. This not only saves you money but also protects the birdhouse.
Place the birdhouses in an open area:
Sparrows mostly visit the area where they can easily find their food. They usually forage in or near your homes, buildings, warehouses, offices, etc. Therefore, if you keep birdhouses in such areas, they are more likely to be occupied by these aggressive birds.
Sparrows not only eat food but also attack other birds to make nests in birdhouses. Thus, they can seriously injure or kill birds.
Thus, to protect both the zoo and the birds from sparrows, place birdhouses in an open area away from your buildings. It should be about 150 yards from buildings.
Sparrows rarely visit such areas due to non-availability of food. It is difficult for sparrows to find food in these places and so they usually stay close to buildings to get their favorite food.
Eliminate the food and water sources near the birdhouses:
The presence of food is usually the only way to attract the attention of sparrows. When sparrows find a feeder, they visit it regularly to eat.
If you place feeders near your birdhouses, the only way to keep sparrows away is to remove the feeders. This is because when sparrows are unable to find a feeder, they will go elsewhere to find food.
You can also place the feeder some distance away from the birdhouse. One of the biggest benefits of spacing feeders is that sparrows will not visit the birdhouse after eating from the feeder. They eat from the feeder and go back to their nests. This is an easy way to remove sparrows from the feeder.
Select a birdhouse that resists the entry of sparrows:
The size and design of birdhouses also plays an important role in getting rid of sparrows. Sparrows generally love birdhouses that are large in size and have large entrance holes. Moreover, the nest cavity in birdhouses should be large. Such birdhouses allow easy entry for sparrows and provide ample space for their domed nests.
To make the birdhouse unattractive to sparrows, always choose a birdhouse with small size and entrance holes. The maximum birdhouse entrance hole required for bird entry is usually 1.75”. Birdhouses with entrance holes smaller than 1.75” resist bird entry.
Additionally, sparrows may not feel comfortable in sparse nesting areas if the nest holes are small. These are reasons enough for sparrows to leave the birdhouse and find another place to nest.
Hang or keep the birdhouse at a certain height:
The height of birdhouses also impacts greatly the sparrow’s presence. The sparrows are the ground feeders and always choose birdhouses present on or near the ground.
If you keep the birdhouse near the ground then it is difficult to protect the birds and food from the sparrows. Thus to overcome this problem, always hang or keep the birdhouses at a certain height from the ground.
Keep the birdhouses at least at a height of 5 feet above the ground to make them unattractive for sparrows. It is the ideal height to resist the sparrows. For this purpose, you can hang the birdhouses with the strong branch of a tree after securing them with a hook.
Then, pass a strong piece of rope through the hook and tightens it with the branch. This will effectively help you to keep the sparrows away from the birdhouse while ensuring the presence of other birds.
Try to use a birdhouse made of PVC material:
House sparrows mostly adjust to birdhouses made of wooden materials. Such birdhouses have a large internal volume that is sufficient for sparrows to nest. So, if you use wooden birdhouses, remove them to ensure the absence of aggressive sparrows.
Instead of a wooden birdhouse, try using a birdhouse made of PVC material. Sparrows avoid such birdhouses because they do not have enough space to build sparrow nests.
Additionally, such birdhouses are usually shallow, which other birds like but sparrows dislike. You can permanently deter birds by placing wooden birdhouses some distance away from PVC birdhouses.
Therefore, the presence of wooden birdhouses will encourage sparrows to avoid birdhouses made of PVC material. As such, it will work exceptionally well to drive sparrows out of birdhouses.
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