discussing and discouraging sparrows

[Lemars]

morning all

A question about feeding birds occurred to me yesterday.

For several years (7-8) I have fed birds from many posts around the garden. I use all the usual feeders and fat balls - in profusion. This year, the population of birds has snowballed dramatically due - in some part - to a constant food-source. The main population growth has been among the sparrows, though I suspect a few blue and great tits have also benefited.

In previous years, the demand has declined as summer progressed - and I supplied less and less until it stopped.
I've been trying to wean them for a few weeks, gradually decreasing the quantities they are offered. They seem voracious this year. I'm still supplying 3 fat balls, 2 sunflower feeders and 3 wild bird seed feeders daily - and each and every one of them is empty within 3 hours.

Having raised several generations of them - in that they have learned to expect a certain amount daily - will this population suffer (especially the large numbers of babies which are still appearing and many still in the nest) as a result?

I entirely take the blame for creating this problem. I'd just like to find a way round it without causing stress to the birds, hence my main questions, are these:

if they have to go further afield to find food, do they have any sort of `homing' instinct?
Would they fly out to forage and how likely are they to return, daily, to the `home roost'.


I can think of all sorts of answers to this, but wondered if anyone had any thoughts - or if there is a sure answer.

[Dogghound]

Sparrows (Tree and House) predominantly rely on invertebrates for feeding nestlings particularly for the first half of their nestling life, they then have more seeds and plant material within their diet although still rely heavily on inverts. Your feeders may be acting as a top up to their diet and more importantly a source of easy food for the adults whilst brooding, incubating etc. However its unlikely that these birds are completely dependent on just your feeders alone. They usually have several local feeding sites or a larger area which they feed over.

Regarding the Questions

if they have to go further afield to find food, do they have any sort of `homing' instinct?

Would they fly out to forage and how likely are they to return, daily, to the `home roost'

House Sparrows (which I presume these are) are very sedentary and may travel in the region of 2km to forage especially later in the year when they often move into arable fields etc to forage on the grain. Currently breeding birds will obviously return to roost (rear) and most (if not all) other birds which have finished breeding will hang around the colony and food source and roost in your colony (although remember your colony may be spread across a larger area). Locally our birds exist in 3 lose nesting colonies and group up into 1 flock during the late summer. The juveniles will probably stay through the winter in most cases with some leaving in autumn and the rest in early spring if there are not enough suitable breeding sites or sufficient food (which can both influence the number of birds in an area). You may get a lul in numbers towards late summer when birds often roost closer to key foraging areas, but they will return around Sept/Oct. Hope this has helped although its very complex and a lot of external factors may influence breeding, dispersal etc at any given colony.

[Lemars]

Thank you Doghound, for a long and comprehensive (and speedy) reply.

I wish I could label the food and eliminate (evict) at least 3/4 of the sparrows !!
I shall continue to reduce the supply, but don't really want to discourage other birds as well.

I counted the birds I disturbed from one roost at dusk last year - this wasn't difficult since they returned within seconds. There were at least 60 of them in there. I have at least 6 - 8 similar areas around (in) the garden and I'm sure some of them are bigger than that.
When this years offspring are added to those, the numbers don't bear thinking about.

I hope you're right and that if I keep the feeding well-down until the winter sets in, some of them will vacate !

Thank you for your reply. I'd not realised they'd depart of their own accord and didn't want them to be unable to forage after several generations of `training' to the feeders.

C

Come to think of it - do you think they'd cope if I stopped completely now - while some parents still have to feed themselves close to their nests ?

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Lemars

I counted the birds I disturbed from one roost at dusk last year - this wasn't difficult since they returned within seconds. There were at least 60 of them in there. I have at least 6 - 8 similar areas around (in) the garden and I'm sure some of them are bigger than that.
When this years offspring are added to those, the numbers don't bear thinking about.

Some roosts in north africa, and parts of europe have held over 100,000 birds which would put pressure on the feeders .

Originally Posted by Lemars

I hope you're right and that if I keep the feeding well-down until the winter sets in, some of them will vacate !

Yes, although spring seems to be a key times for 1st summer birds to disperse if they have not established a breeding site over winter/early spring. So you might get a sudden drop in numbers prior to breeding next year.

Originally Posted by Lemars

Come to think of it - do you think they'd cope if I stopped completely now - while some parents still have to feed themselves close to their nests ?

Completely depends on local environmental conditions (habitat, prey populations etc) and the surrounding area, how old the nestlings are, if other people feed in the local area etc.... Did the sparrows nest at your house before you started feeding or the other way around? your feeding could be influencing them nesting in that area or at least sustaining a high population in your garden. Personally for the sake of another month I would keep feeding then reduce it when they start to disperse, feed over winter and maybe reduce it again in spring so the potential for dependency is reduced in the following year. House sparrows (and tree sparrows) have declined so your helping the species atleast .

[Lemars]

Doghound, that makes perfect sense. Thank you SO much for confirming that I'll not be doing any damage.

I'll continue to decrease slowly over the next month and cross my fingers they diminish towards the end of the year. I'll also hope that not the entire population move back home for Christmas !!!!

Unfortunately, their presence is almost entirely my fault. When we moved here, there was hardly a bird to be seen. I live in a hamlet and as far as I know, only one other person feeds the birds and of those, none are sparrows. They're quite happy feeding here !!

We're surrounded by miles of arable fields and woodland, so I'm sure they'll go if I stop feeding. Unfortunately, I might also banish the other birds, but hopefully they'll return next winter.

Thank you again for your time and effort typing all that out for me.

C