Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by bananapear on Monday June 27, 2022 @07:54AM
(#31893271)
Why would you want to deter them? What’s the problem with them vs other small birds?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by peanut_worm on Monday June 27, 2022 @08:01AM
(#31893336)
House Sparrows are invasive in the United States and they are very aggressive. They destroy the nests of native birds to eliminate competition.
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by trelane on Monday June 27, 2022 @09:11AM
(#31894085)
We have bluebird houses and can confirm. One box full of pecked-to-death bluebirds with house sparrow eggs on top of them is quite enough. I call the males "bearded bastards."
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by anonu on Monday June 27, 2022 @09:17AM
(#31894174)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin
Reminds me of this guy, who thought it would be a good idea to introduce the birds in Shakespeare's plays to the US.
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by mikestew on Monday June 27, 2022 @02:03PM
(#31898282)
That’s because it’s the same guy who earlier sponsored the introduction of the house sparrow to the U. S.
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by was_a_dev on Monday June 27, 2022 @08:12AM
(#31893422)
Thanks for the context - with House Sparrows being resident in Eurasia, I didn't understand the motivation for this either
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by otter-rock on Monday June 27, 2022 @09:16AM
(#31894161)
Many birds commonly seen in the US are non-native, and reduce native bird populations significantly.
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by peanut_worm on Monday June 27, 2022 @02:00PM
(#31898235)
Odd that this list considers Cattle Egrets as invasive, I have never heard that before. They came here naturally just fairly recently. Their range expanded due to human activity but, rather interestingly, it was because they had more available food sources rather than physically being moved by people. They eat parasites off cattle so as cattle farming expanded so did their range.
Herons are already capable of traversing entire continents, as can be seen with Night Herons. Cattle Egrets just didn’t really have a reason to expand until recently.
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by Sjeiti on Monday June 27, 2022 @12:44PM
(#31897158)
That is peculiar. Because in the Netherlands the native house sparrow population has declined significantly since the '90s.
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by peanut_worm on Monday June 27, 2022 @02:35PM
(#31898744)
Same is happening with Starlings. They are in decline in Europe but they thrive the North America
Re:Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magi...
by overthemoon on Monday June 27, 2022 @09:48AM
(#31894560)
Honestly, they are cute, I like having them around, but we've got some feeders, and if there are house sparrows, there are no other birds. We've been tweaking the feed we use and the form factor of the feeders to keep them away. Since we switched to nyjer, they've generally left the feeder alone, and we get finches instead.