No home for house sparrows

House sparrows make themselves at home at feeders and can crowd out other birds. You may not be able to get rid of them, but you can discourage them.

By VAL CUNNINGHAM, Contributing Writer

Last update: November 11, 2009 - 12:15 PM

Q The sparrow population seems to have exploded. They're hogging the feeders and keeping other birds away. What can we do to get rid of the sparrows?

A House sparrows were busy breeders all summer, as you undoubtedly noticed from the number of sparrows in your back yard this fall.

Unfortunately, house sparrows are all too comfortable around homes. But that doesn't mean we have to make life easy for them. Since they're basically ground feeders, stop tossing seeds, cracked corn or crumbs on the ground and sweep up any seed that might spill from your feeders. You also can try hanging a platform feeder from a shepherd's hook by a cord and attaching a cord to each corner of the feeder. Sparrows are fairly clumsy fliers, so they seem to avoid this kind of arrangement. And while sparrows will eat safflower seeds, they won't flock in for them. If you can't get rid of them entirely, feeding with safflower may at least cut down on the number of sparrows visiting your yard.

Make a clean sweep

Q When should I clean out the birdhouses?

A Fall is a good time to clean any birdhouses you have. Just open the houses, remove the nesting material and use a whisk broom to clean out the nest box. To avoid coming into contact with bacteria, don gloves before you start and don't breathe in any of the dust.

Southern migration

Q Do birds in the Southern Hemisphere migrate the way our birds do, but from south to north for the winter?

A Good question. The short answer is no.

It turns out that there are fewer long-distance migrants in South America, because most of the continent's birds spend the entire year in the tropical regions. A few species - such as the vermilion flycatcher, the black-faced ibis and the great hummingbird - travel northward from Argentina and Brazil in their fall, which is in March and April. And another migratory pattern draws birds out of the high Andes in the autumn to lowland areas to spend the winter. But South America doesn't have a migration like our spectacular movement of billions of birds every fall and spring.

Val Cunningham, a St. Paul nature writer, bird surveyor and field trip leader, can be reached at valwrites@comcast.net.

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