This site has excellent house sparrow management tips, and suggestions for making houses less hospitable for house sparrows. The site is written/managed by a woman who is a devoted bluebird conservation volunteer. I have not had any luck with chickadees in my nesting boxes, but the tufted titmouse population is happy, and we are still a well known feeding station for chickadees.

Thank you. I did get to the Sialis site, but am unsettled at the prospect of killing anything. I do realize what a pest the sparrows are, so might have to toughen up.

I do get chickadees (had a banded one, "Mr. Red" come around for YEARS), titmouse and wrens at the feeders daily.

Then there are the sparrows...

I'll measure my nest box holes.

What caroline said! I too am a Purple Martin landlord and take a very aggressive stance against those sparrows (and Starlings). Those invasive species can, and will, kill the native species. I've seen it happen....and that is more unsettling than me pinging a sparrow with my pellet gun.

How do the sparrows end up where they are non-native?

Chickadees can also break your heart. We had a pair build a nest one year in our box and made a racket doing it too. Laid one egg and of course we got so excited. Then the happy couple disappeared. The bird feed store told us we had been "used"! Chickadees often build a "decoy" nest and make a lot of noise doing it so other birds will think they are there. They leave 1 egg. And then build their real nest elsewhere. Little stinkers they are.

House sparrows and chicadees don't actually like the same kind of nesting spots, so check the size of your holes, and the placement of the boxes. Real birds like untreated, rough wood, camouflaged small boxes that look messy. Chicadees nest in holes in trees, so even try and find an old dead log with a bunch of holes in it and set it out in a tree. I had a friend who had a dead tree hauled into her yard and propped up for birds to nest in and woodpeckers to peck. Keep chicadee nests in wooded areas well away from the house. They're just not gonna nest up by your house no matter what, so make sure your expectations are realistic.

l pinkmountain - Ah, very helpful. We have a wooded (sloped) backyard and woods behind our house that are full of old and dead trees. I'm betting that's where they are nesting.

peaches12345

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No kidding! I've never heard of that either.

dees_1 - Do martins like wide open spaces for those houses? When I've seen them, they are high up and in an open area.

cattyles - Here is some information on house sparrows. They, like starlings, were introduced to the New World by humans.

Gosh, I even feed the grackles.

Hi Cattyles - Like all our non-native pests, they were transported here. Some species by accident; some on purpose.

English House Sparrows (HoSP) were introduced from England in the late 1800s by a Shakespearian group that performed plays in NYC's central park. Someone got the wild idea it would be great to have all the birds mentioned in the Bard's plays flying around the park. They imported them and released them in the park.

All the species, except two - the European Starling - and the English House sparrows - died out quickly. These two aggressive species took off like wildfire. With the explosion of fast food places and shopping malls toward the late 1950s, the HoSP came into their own. Now every fast food place and big box garden center is literally crawling with them.

Pink Mountain - I don't want to sound contrary, but my chickadees nest in a wooden box, set on a metal pole, 5' from my neighbor's busy garage. While it's not ideal, it is for them because of the safety. I keep clean bird houses and have illuminated the house sparrows in this little corner of town. They, like all cavity nesters, would prefer an old dead tree full of abandoned woodpecker holes, but that's not always possible. I wanted to bring one in, too, but there's just not room.

HoSPs will nest anywhere, in bird houses, drain pipes, under roof eaves, trees, any sort of place at all. They will enter a cavity nesters "home" (they wrecked havoc on the woodpecker population, too) smash eggs or kill the young and pull their nesting material in right over the bodies.

This picture doesn't show the birds, but this garage is on our property line. I have the bird house about 5' away from it. The neighbors are siding their garage, while a tree swallow is in the nest incubating her eggs.

This is the box the chickadees use in the early spring. I've had a pair checking it out all week right now. After they leave the tree swallows arrive and take over. About 40 feet to the left I have another nest box attached to their privacy fence. It alternates each year between wrens or more tree swallows.

Thank you very much for the information.

That's quite amazing that any bird would nest in such an open spot. You are very lucky! By "messy" for the houses, I meant ones that are camouflaged with their surroundings. But apparently in Caroline's neighborhood, they aren't that picky! Great progress can be made for native bird nesting success by trapping and killing house sparrows. But so far I haven't been able to find the time and inclination to do that where I live.

Sparrows killed my baby bluebirds last year.

Now, every chance we get they die of lead poisoning.... one 22 calibur pellet at a time.

Hopefully this link works. My husband built these bluebird houses that the sparrows will not nest in. They don't like the shallow depth.

Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent them from killing the blue birds in the nest. Hence...the lead poisoning.

http://www.nysbs.org/handouts/GilbertsonPVCNestbox.pdf

mimipadv, Martins like housing on a pole 12-15 feet in the air, in a somewhat open area. While they will use compartmentalized houses, they prefer gourds. Martins like to be close to people and not too close to trees, for protection. I have housing for 108 nesting pairs, with expansion forthcoming to allow better nest checks and general maintenance. It's a labor of love! I know caroline does very diligent nest checks on her colony and posts her progress on several different forums.

Thank you dees. Do you recommend 1-piece or 2-piece gourd houses? Natural or synthetic matter?

Natural gourds are preferred by the birds (more work for the landlord!) but they will use any gourd. We use S&K BO9 gourds (two piece) with extended porches (like a tunnel) and a cooling cap. Others swear by Troyer gourds. Just find one that has good ports for cleaning/nest checks etc as well as the ability to close the entrance hole for the off season (if you don't take them down).

There is a product sold at some home improvement stores; it's a smallish single molded gourd....stay away from those.

Thank you, dees. Dumb question- How and when do you check the nests? They're up high, so I imagine you take them down to peek in? Do you dare disturb when the nest might be active or with chicks?