Have House Sparrows taken over your bird feeders? I know a clever way to get rid of them.
A pair of the bossy, noisy little birds nested on the side of our garage this summer. Before I could take down the nest after the first brood fledged, they had started a second one. By mid-July there was a pretty sizable gang of House Sparrows scaring other birds away from our yard and making an absolute mess of the feeders.
One day I was listening to a birding podcast when one of the show’s guests mentioned that House Sparrows are afraid of fishing line. I thought that sounded a little odd, so I poked around online for more information. As it turns out, it’s not some crazy rumor. I discovered that if you attach fishing line to your feeders, you can actually keep the little beasts at bay.
I had to try it for myself. I went to a hardware store and purchased a little spool of 20# monofilament fishing line for 3 dollars. I tied a few strands to some of my feeders and sat back to enjoy the show. It didn’t take long. The first House Sparrow barely waited until I got back into the house. He swooped down toward the feeder, but when he saw the fishing line he stopped in mid-air, flapping his wings wildly. He aborted the landing and flew into a nearby shrub. I was giddy with excitement.
As the afternoon wore on, the same scenario unfolded over and over again. I must admit that I really enjoyed watching the sparrows freak out. They wanted nothing to do with that fishing line.
I was a little concerned that over time they would get used to it, or that some brave soul would land on the feeder and prove to the rest of the birds that there was nothing to be scared of, but it never happened. I’ve had the fishing line up for a month now and it still works like a charm.
You only need to attach a few strands to each feeder. I have two hanging from each side of my hopper feeders and two strands total on any hanging feeders. The strands should be long enough to blow gently in the breeze. That seems to be what bothers the House Sparrows the most.
I have noticed that if the fishing line blows over to the side far enough or gets heavy with rain water, a House Sparrow may attempt a landing. I’ve seen a few of the birds take advantage of a situation like that, but all of them were still so cautious that they only stayed on the feeder for a moment or two.
And don’t worry about other species. So far I haven’t found any other birds that share this weird fishing line aversion. Since I’ve tried this experiment, I’ve had normal feeder visits from Blue Jays, cardinals, House Finches, Purple Finches, goldfinches, White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves and chickadees.
If you are up to your eyeballs in House Sparrows, this cheap solution is worth a try!