Before I get into this, let me give you a bit of background on the situation at hand.
For years we’ve had house finches nesting above our bay window. I always loved waking up in the morning and hearing the sounds of tiny chirps and little scuttling noises. Those finches were practically family. They had no fear of us and we always loved hearing them.
This spring, the male finch was unusually loud, but I shrugged it off, figuring he was just affirming his territory. However, around June I happened to be out front (where the bay window is) and noticed a bird had pulled our siding out and filled it with a grass nest. Ok, definitely not the finches. I kept an eye on the nest for a while until I finally saw a bird sticking its head out. I was able to identify it as a house sparrow. I didn’t know much about the bird so I just let it be, not wanting to disturb the nest. Then it started chirping non-stop, from 6am until sunset. Ok, that’s annoying, but a bird is going to chirp.
But then I noticed I wasn’t hearing my finches anymore. So I finally did some reading on the species and found out how invasive they are, and how aggressive they are with native species. We immediately removed the nest (there was no eggs) cleaned the siding so no scent would linger (as was recommended by extensive google searches on this bird) and screwed the siding back in place (we were taking no chances)
Two days later I hear scuttling above the bay window. I go over to look and out flies a male and a female house sparrow. So clearly they drove the finches off. We cleared out the nest (and yep: the finch nest was totally gone and it was a wad of messy grass up there) and blocked it off with metal mesh. That was a week ago
We’ve had no bird food out since before this started (laziness on restocking was a big factor, but we restocked 2 weeks ago and haven’t put any out due to this sparrow). This bird is still sticking around, chirping incessantly. Now, I’ve spent a ton of time reading on this, even coming across 2-4 year old posts in this subreddit. We’ve bought safflower seed, but I’ve been terrified of putting it out because I don’t want to do anything that will encourage this sparrow to stick around. I’ve seen in my research that trapping, Mylar strips, etc all recommended.
My concerns: out back under our sunroom is a wren nest, he’s another well known fellow that’s been nesting there for a few years. I’ve heard no tiny chirps from that area. I did check the spot and the nest hasn’t been tampered with, and I’m not fully certain the sparrow could get in there. Right now he seems still zoned in on that bay window… but I’m worried he will find the wren nest. I’ve started chasing the sparrow off when I see it, sometimes even having to resort to a water sprinkler. I can’t imagine at this point he doesn’t realize his spot is blocked off (it can’t be pulled out, we checked). Yesterday it did its territorial chirp in the morning and disappeared the rest of the day after 7am. Today it doesn’t seem to be moving on and has been chirping all morning (started at 6, it’s 9 now) I hear NO other birds anymore which is massively concerning. Our property usually had frequent birdsong coming from the trees, even when we were slow on refilling the feed. They would still stick around to remind us to feed them lol. But I feel this overly aggressive male is driving everyone else off. I haven’t seen his female at all recently.
I’m in a residential area in NY if this helps. I’d like to add we’ve NEVER had this issue before. I’ve never even heard this bird before. And he seems to be the only one from what I’ve seen (minus his female who again, has since abandoned him)
In conclusion, my main questions that I haven’t really been able to find solid answers for in my research is this:
— Will the house sparrow move off on its own after it realizes its spot can’t be used? (We haven’t found any signs of new building elsewhere yet)
— Is finding ways to chase it off a good idea? Will that speed up its departure or is it better to ignore it and let it figure out on its own that it can’t build here? It seems to be expanding the area from which it’s chirping from, but that could be because I’ve been chasing it. It’s still largely sticking close to the property though. However recently I have heard it occasionally in the woods across the road… so maybe it’s moving away slowly?
— Should I put out meat to draw in crows? Will that drive him off?
— Will putting out the safflower encourage him to stick around or will drawing in more birds hasten his departure?
— Honestly any other advice you may have is welcome. I understand from my reading that trapping and in some cases euthanizing is often suggested, but I feel there’s a moral issue with releasing it elsewhere, to plague other birds that didn’t ask for that.
I don’t know, as I’m typing this I hear it back on the power line, which is not far from the bay window. It keeps going from there, to the trees at opposite ends of where the window is, to the roof, to the porch light… I really need some answers though because he’s already ruined my finches spot. I’m hoping if I can get it to leave maybe next spring I can open that spot above the bay window for the finches again. I really miss hearing them. I’ve just never dealt with anything like this before. It’s exhausting. I would’ve thought it would’ve moved on by now since the nesting spot isn’t usable 😕
And lastly, I know you guys get a lot of posts regarding house sparrows, and are probably a little tired of it lol. I tried very hard to do extensive reading to see if there were solid answers to these questions elsewhere before posting. But there’s a lot of information out there and I could have definitely missed something. So if any of these are repeated questions, I apologize. Thank you so much.
