I've never used safflower seed because I don't get House Sparrows, but others say it can discourage them, as least for a while. If they persist, you can just take down your feeders for a few days or weeks until they go elsewhere.

Using tube feeders discourages larger trash birds-even Mourning Doves love to toss expensive BOSS on the ground if they have access to it. Millet, cracked corn, or bread crumbs, using feeding trays or putting food on the ground attracts vermin..both bird and rodent.

I only have two feeders in winter; suet, and BOSS in a finch tube, which hang on hooks from under my eaves so squirrels can't reach them, and I can monitor them. If I see even House Finches on the tube feeder I take down both suet and tube feeders until they move on.

The trouble with using tube feeder is that the birds I like to feed are cardinals. They need a fairly large perch.

The millets were for the Junco and mourning doves, neither will use the tube feeder. I don't mind house finches, there are so few of them to be a bother. This goes for black birds as well. Some people have problems with them, but I only get one or two at most.

We'll see how well this works. I am also curious to see if squirrels will eat safflower seeds. I notice they will eat millet but not Nyjer Seeds.

Paul

All I feed in my tube feeders is safflower. It does deter English sparrows, there are a lot of them around here. I haven't noticed them being very keen on the saff., and I have no other feed they really prefer or can easily access.
Squirrels don't prefer safflower although I have had the odd one or two learn to eat it. I have guards on all my tube feeders so they could only pick up what is on the ground.
Starting with a 50/50 blend is good. Fill your feeder with that mix, when your feeder is half empty top it off with a 3:1 blend then when that's half gone top it off with straight safflower. This time of year I'm sure your birds will quickly adjust.
Good luck and let us know how it works!

I have to tell you, Paul, the sparrows I have had here don't mind safflower. I tried putting it out this past summer when the house sparrows were a real nuisance, and they ate it and/or strewed it all over my patio. I ended up taking my feeders down for about a week, and the birds did go somewhere else for awhile. Of course they keep coming back (I live outside Boston, where if you go into Home Depot you could get flown into by sparrows - inside the building!) I know the sparrows will never completely leave here, I just do what I can not to encourage them. My upside down suet feeder has been successful in not attracting them much, and the little birds (chickadees etc) and downies love it. Also, I have that homemade gizmo on my tube feeder, and that keeps the sparrows out.

Good luck with this - it's a never-ending battle!

The results are back. Switching to safflower does not deter house sparrows at all. In fact, they like it even more and now empty the feeder in a few hours instead of a day.

Chickadees seems to mostly now mind it. Cardinals seems to like it less. I haven't seen a mourning dove lately, so I don't know if they like it or not. I also see the only few red wing blackbirds in the area eating it. Woodpeckers seemes to like it more than sunflower seeds for some reason. Juncos do not like it.

Most squirrels do not like it. I notice a few smaller squirrels eating it. It's usually the smaller gray squirrels is probably lower in the pecking order so they have to eat what they can.

I may have to try the next idea - using magic halo
http://www.sialis.org/halo.htm. However, I don't know if this will scare off the cardinals as well. Anyone have experience with the halo?

Actually, I wish the hawk that comes by clear out some of the house sparrows, but I realized that my yard is too well protected. It's gone lots of trees and very tall grass.

Paul

Paul

Paul, I put together something that I put over my tube feeder and it keeps sparrows away. I don't know whether you could use it on a feeder that cardinals visit - but maybe.
2"-opening chickenwire cut into an oval larger than the top of tube feeder. Bend outside edges underneath all around so that no sharp edges are left.
Use florist wire or other similar wire about 16" long, or longer if your feeder is longer than that. Cut five pieces. Attach weights of some kind (fishing weights, jewelry beads, etc.) to end of each wire however you can. Tie wires onto chickenwire oval at even intervals.
Put chickenwire over tube feeder handle through one of the 2" openings in the middle. Wires will dangle straight down because of weights, and this keeps sparrows from landing on feeder. The sparrows are also intimidate from going between the wires to the portals. Smaller birds don't mind them.

Hope this is helpful. It's cheap and it has worked really well for me.

Donna

I also tried the safflower, but it didn't work for me either. I had to take down the feeders for a while. The hanging monofiliment or florist wire with the weighted ends didn't work for me either. The House Sparrows just ignored it.

Sorry the wires didn't work for you Kendra.

Just in case this helps - how close together the wires are makes a difference. I think the reason this can work is that the way the sparrows land is thwarted by the wires being a short distance from one another. I have five wires on mine, less than 3" apart.

Just a thought -

My neighbor( a very sweet lady) loves feeding sparrows.It has become a plague of biblical proportions. They fly into my hawthorn where they eat their seeds so there are seed shells all over the place. Uneaten seeds sprout under the tree where I have a small shade garden. And the droppings are disgusting. I love my neighbor but there is no talking to her. She loves her sparrows. I use the power spray from the garden hose when I see them and that helps somewhat. But now it's freezing so that won't work. The fabric owl I bought worked only for a few days,even when I moved it around. I read about other things that you can buy, but they're either to expensive, to noisy or don't work anyway according to feed back.I am so disgusted I would like to put up my own feeder with strychnine in it!Any ideas would be appreciated!

I am assuming "of biblical proportions" means a LOT of sparrows.

Is there some type of netting you can put over your tree until someone (maybe in an "official" capacity) can speak with your neighbor about this problem? House sparrows are non-native species and I think they can be captured, etc. for nuisance reasons. Maybe you could get an animal control officer or someone else who understands to speak with her and show her that she is not doing the sparrows any favors by encouraging them to stay.

Hosps breed like rats, carry salmonella, and regularly kill native cavity nesting birds. I have the gruesome photos to prove it. It is legal to trap and dispose of them.

Say, your last idea sounded good..

If someone next door is feeding House Sparrows you might have to skip feeders and have bird-friendly plants, since House Sparrows prefer handouts to actual wild food.

It's too bad you don't have hawks in your area. People who feed birds in my area have ended up with a visit by the hawks. The result is not pretty, but keeps the sparrow population down.

Unfortunately, it appears that my yard is to well protected for hawks to catch them (too many trees and shrubs). I suppose I can try to bait them by sticking millet out in the open, but I don't want the song birds near my yard to get hit.

For my next experiment, I am going to try using the magic halo without the lines. Without the line, it's supposed to be mostly effective but does not affect cardinals and bigger birds. If I have to hang vertical wires, the cardinal is not likely to come to my feeder either.

Unfortunately, no one seems to sell them locally, and apparently there is wait of 3-4 days to several weeks for them. I am going to home depot tomorrow to see if I can make one from hobby wire.

Paul

Sorry the safflower switch didn't work for you. I couldn't tell from your post if the sparrows were eating the seed or just throwing it looking for something else.
There are several companies that sell sparrow traps. Fewer English sparrows in the US would be a good thing. I've read they're becoming scarce in England, too bad we can't arrange some way to send them home!

They are definitely eating it. I left some on the ground just to test it out. They came by and ate it all up. I don't think I am up for trapping and euthaning them. I just want them to stop eating like pigs at the feeder.

The trap idea sounds good.There are some available online. I am going to look into that.I did not know that the bloody things carry salmonella! Or that they kill cavity nesting birds.Nasty.I tried putting netting on the tree but can't get it over the top even with a ladder and telescoping pole. Nearly killed myself. I'll put the netting over my vegetable garden in the spring because they eat the nice tender green shoots as soon as they sprout!This past summer they decimated my lettuce.I have considered getting a cat, but my Airedale and two Irish terriers will kill it so that's out too.They kill the occasional sparrow though!If only they could climb the tree.......

The Magic Halo is about 90% effective on Hosp. Occasionally, one gets through. Strangely enough, it is usually a female. I have a store-bought one and a homemade one I made from a tomato cage, and they both seem to be equally effective. I do use the fishing line with the bell weights and hadn't had any problems for years.
They don't bother the Finches, Cowbirds, Chickadees or Titmouse, but the Cardinal will only occasionally feed at the trays but prefers to feed under the feeder most of the time.

Today we were invaded by sparrows. Bunches of birds fighting over what I guess were too many feeders, so I took one down and allowed them to empty two others.

After those three feeders were out of commission very few sparrows stayed and the small birds returned. It was striking how much the sparrows being at the feeders had intimidated them.

I've decided to limit the feeders this winter to my upside-down suet feeder and one tube feeder with the hanging wires.

I am running into a problem with making the magic hoop. Originally, I thought it was 30 inch circumference. It's apparently 30 inch diameter. Now that's bloody large. I am going to have to think about how to install and now have squirrels trying to use it as a way to get to the feeder. I suppose it's not stable enough for them to run on.

Has anyone try using a magic hoop device on the ground feeder. I was wondering if a giant hoop over the ground feeding station would be enough to scare off the sparrows.

Paul

I am running into a problem with making the magic hoop. Originally, I thought it was 30 inch circumference. It's apparently 30 inch diameter. Now that's bloody large. I am going to have to think about how to install and now have squirrels trying to use it as a way to get to the feeder. I suppose it's not stable enough for them to run on.

Has anyone try using a magic hoop device on the ground feeder. I was wondering if a giant hoop over the ground feeding station would be enough to scare off the sparrows.

Paul

They are 30" in diameter, which is large. I told my neighbor they were antennae so I could receive transmissions from the Mother Ship. He just nodded, knowingly.
The 4 lines that dangle down with the weights have to go slightly below the feeder, so I'm not sure how you could make that work on a ground feeder. I painted the weights in Day-Glo orange so I don't whack myself when I service the feeder. A lesson hard learned.
It is on a swivel that is attached between the hook and feeder and is too unstable for a squirrel to gain purchase.
In fact, the birds use it as a staging area while awaiting their turn, and they have to distribute themselves to keep it level.

I was trying to install it without the lines. I know that with the lines, it works a lot better, but if I install it, the cardinals that make up for the large majority of birds that visit the feeder probably won't come.

Have you tried it with just the hoop?

Paul

No, I have not tried it without the lines. Just from observation, I would concur that it wouldn't be as effective as the lines seem to confuse the HOSP and they usually give up and land on the ground below the feeder.

"90% of all birds" breed like rats, carry salmonella, and regularly kill native cavity nesting birds. I have the gruesome photos to prove it.

Imstabile - yes, getting a cat is a wonderful idea! I'm sure everybody on this forum will love it. You can even post pictures here of the trophies it brings you every day.

Actually, birds get along fine without human help. If feeding greedy invasives floods the neighborhood and drives away native birds, just plant berry bushes.
Handouts may even be undermining wild bird populations; I recently read that in the U.K., certain feeder birds have already evolved into separate subspecies; their beaks changed shape to accommodate eating from feeders and they no longer migrate

Rachel, please, post a couple of pictures of these mutant birds :)

Interesting thread.
I'm seriously considering taking down all my feeders. The doves and HoSps are a dam-ed nuisance and I can't afford to feed them and the natives. I'm currently redoing the yard at our current house. We moved in this past May and have been in damage control mode since then. I have plans for lots of natives and adapted plants and already have some awaiting planting,
My cats don't bother the birds but the neighbor's dog seems to subsist on them. But he mainly catches doves, our local version of the squirrel, so that's OK. And it's always a plus when the Cooper's Hawk shows up. Mmmmmm, starlings!
Rachel, could you post a link to the UK bird article if possible? Sounds like an interesting read.
I have to look into this "magic halo". I've never come across it around here.

Here's the link to the article I posted on Twitter back on Dec. 4

Britain's Bird Tables Changing the Path of Evolution

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6718307/Britains-bird-tables-changing-the-path-of-evolution.html

The magic halo concept is 95-100% effective for me for deterring house sparrows.

The main idea is that you need the "halo" on top for preventing the HoSPs from descending from above, and the wires to prevent them from approaching laterally.

The "halo" (aka top-cover) can be anything that will prevent passage. For my suet log, this is a piece of 1/4" density hardware cloth that is 2' x 4' laying over the top of support that the suet log hangs from.

For my sunflower and safflower feeders, the top-covers are extra-large plastic weather domes by Aspects.

I then surround the feeders with a network of weights suspended by 30 gauge to 26 gauge hobby wire.

The nimble woodpeckers, nuthatch, chickadees, titmice, goldfinch, house finches, purple finches, and even some juncos fly right through. Harris' sparrow (indigenous) ground feeds with the juncos.

The house sparrows and starlings find somewhere else to feed.

The wires sometimes break of course, and if I don't get right on it and re-hang the wires then I will get a few house sparrows invading.

I have a self-designed arbor constructed from steel support tubing with sections of cattle panel over the top which makes it very easy for me to hang feeders and wire anywhere I choose.

If I get the occasional stubborn house sparrow I deploy a deluxe-repeating sparrow trap until I get the bugger.

These measures have kept my feeders from getting mobbed by the pestilent sparrows and starlings and allowed me to continue to enjoy watching the birds at my feeders. There isn't much else interesting to see out there in the winter!

Nicole01

My next door neighbor is also enjoying feeding HOSPs. We have very small yards with cottages joined by courtyards& she has as many as 200 over there. It makes me so mad because I had bluebirds nest in my court yard last Spring & they hardly even come around any more. I've talked to my neighbor & talked her into switching to Safflower, but from what I'm reading, that doesn't work. I was feeding mealworms to my bluebirds & little wrens, but the HOSPs just took over, so I've stopped feeding for now. Last Spring when I had the bluebirds, the HOSPs weren't a big problem because my new neighbor moved in afterwards. I'm going to get the halos & traps, but don't know if I can euthanize them. My 1st question is, "Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do with my neighbor?" & my 2nd question is, "If I decide to go as far as to euthanize, what is the most humane way to do it?" Can't even believe I'm asking that question. I need help with these HOSPs. There were about 70 in my yard before I took the mealworms down.

Uncle Blaine's live sparrow traps work fabulously. I used it for 3 summers; first year trapped 308 HOSP; second year 180; third year for one month only, 45, for a total of 533 HOSP. I didn't use it this year as we are moving and the sparrow population had dropped, although after nesting season it started to rise again. I euthanize them with carbon monoxide. After capture I transfer them to a large plastic bag, run a hose from the car exhaust and in a matter of a couple of seconds, they are overcome with fumes. I do everything, including transferring them to the bag, as quickly as possible. Everything takes only a couple of minutes. I never really liked doing it but it sure decreased the HOSP population and increased the native birds that came to my feeder substantially.

I began using homemade magic halos on my feeders 2-3 years ago. The suet has been completely HOSP-free and the nyjer sock has been nearly HOSP-free. The black oil sunflower seed feeder still gets used by HOSPs, and the effectiveness of the hanging wires has gradually decreased over time, but it's still much better than before. Most of the HOSPs, when not mobbing my neighbor's feeder or the feeder up the street, are content to hang out on the ground under my feeder. This fall/winter I will have to try to do something to prevent the HOSPs that do get onto the feeder from thrashing/spilling the seeds onto the patio. There is one downside to the hanging wires... they also do a pretty good job of deterring cardinals. A few others above have mentioned the best way to get rid of HOSPs (trapping & euthanizing), but I still don't feel like resorting to that method in my yard.