Dealing with aggressive sparrows

Published 9:07 pm Sunday, November 5, 2017

Is anyone else having trouble with sparrows?

It’s not with them nesting under the garage roof or anywhere else, because they’re not. 

The problem is at the bird feeders.

I have four feeders in the back yard. In two I put sunflower seed. In the other two goes a mixture of sunflower seed, peanut kernels, safflower seed, white millet, cracked corn, milo and a Nyjer seed (an oil seed that is an energy source and is known as winter bird food).

The Nyjer seed, which is a small black seed, may be the problem because it’s a favorite of small birds, including sparrows.

And what the sparrows are doing is landing on the feeder and then flipping food out of the feeder and onto the ground below. This they do until they find what they want.

It could be that little black seed is their objective.

Neighbor Mohamed El-Mogazi, who is treasurer for the local Gulf Coast Bird Club, said small birds like sparrows do like to feed on the ground so the one on the feeder could be flipping feed for others that gather on the ground.

“They do like to scratch around,” he said.

He said some consider the sparrow to be a nuisance, adding that by moving in flocks like they do they will scare some of the other birds away from feeders.

I have seen them do this with cardinals and blue jays and even the big doves are a little put off by their aggressiveness.

In the USA there are 39 named sparrows and in Louisiana we can count 18 of them.

“We have a variety around here,” said El-Mogazi. “(Just about daily) I can see the swamp sparrow, the white-throated sparrow, song sparrow, chipping sparrow and house sparrow which is the most common. A lot of times when a flock appears there will be several different type of sparrows within them.”

The sparrow is not a colorful bird, with their dull brown feathers.

Perhaps the most distinctive of the sparrows in the state is the white-crowned, which will visit in the winter.

Its body is just about like any other sparrow, but the head features a mixture of black-and-white colors and the immature ones will display some red on the head.

As for what to do about those ambitious sparrows at my feeders, El-Mogazi said, “Maybe switch to straight sunflower seeds rather than mixed seed. Also use feeders without flat platforms and even just spread seeds on the ground.”

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The Scoggins family of Longville scored another deer kill last week.

This time it was 10-year-old Abi who brought down her first deer.

Hunting the family land in Lincoln Parish, her first deer had nine points and weighed 140 pounds. She shot it with a Ruger 7mm-08.

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Cameron Prairie’s pintail drive is opened again to the public. A spokesman with the U.S. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said a few ducks have been seen on the drive but that the larger contingent has yet to come south.

The drive is open seven days a week and visitors are welcome.