so today we're going to talk about a
live catch Sparrow trap but I'm going to
review one and first I'm going to talk
to you a little bit about why we would
even bother
trapping sparrows what I'm showing you
here are my backyard
Bluebird boxes they also house tree
sparrows at this time of year Tree
Swallows I mean the reason we have boxes
is because normally birds would use dead
trees like this one that have been
excavated by woodpeckers when you don't
have dead trees you don't have holes in
the trees we put up imitations which are
these bluebird boxes now I've done a lot
of work to make sure and put out
bluebird habitat this is the Peterson
box here and what happens is sometimes
other birds come and actually kill the
bluebirds or they'll take their eggs and
keep them from hatching so sometimes you
have to take measures to collect and
remove some of the invasive species that
are killing the bluebirds in our
environment so and here's another of
course natural hole but today we're
going to look at a live catch Sparrow
trap some people set out traps like
mouse traps or rat traps to catch birds
that they think they don't want in the
environment that's not a good idea
because you really don't know what's
going in that trap and here in this live
cat trap you've just watched a female
cowbird go in and look at the mechanism
that she used to get inside why would we
want to trap cowbirds the male is there
with the dark feathers in the light
brown head and the female is drab the
cowbird does not make a nest that female
cowbird is an expert at timing her
delivery of a fertile egg so what she
does is she flies into the nest of
another bird deposits her eggs
among the other birds
eggs and her egg will hatch first her
baby will be larger and will push out
the baby birds of for example blue birds
or Tree Swallows or other native birds
like the Tufted Titmouse
so these birds are kind of parasitic now
here's a bird that's a problem for a lot
of people and it's called the house
sparrow this is the male
he's already entered this live catch
trap and you can see that the trap does
not really stress out the bird he's gone
in and he's just taking advantage of the
feed that's already available I also
want you to notice the feed that he's
eating it's the tiny birdseed not all
black oil sunflower seeds which is what
I put in my feeders this is a chipping
sparrow it's really lightweight and this
bird can actually go in and out of the
mechanism without triggering it and
getting stuck so they're lightweight
allows them to hop in and out and you
can adjust the sensitivity of this trap
here we have two turtles or two mourning
Doves I'm sorry and in the foreground we
have a female red breasted grosbeak none
of these birds can get into the trap
they're just too large here again is the
chipping sparrow making its escape so
fine-tuning this teeter-totter mechanism
keeps those birds from being trapped and
here's a Tufted Titmouse again these are
native songbirds that we hope to protect
in the foreground is another chipping
sparrow and up high there is again the
male House Sparrow which is known to
pecks hitting bluebirds while they're on
their eggs on their nest and in some
cases pecked to death the offspring
after they've hatched now inside the
live catch trap here again is a
white-crowned sparrow and I'm releasing
it because obviously this is a native
bird that we don't want anything bad to
happen to and this is the reason why
a live catch Sparrow trap system is the
best if you're going to set one of these
up you must monitor the trap you can't
just leave birds in here for long
periods of time so if I'm not going to
be able to keep an eye on the trap I'm
not going to set it up at all or I'll
block the mechanisms or doesn't function
and this white-crowned sparrow is going
to go right into the holding area of
this trap now something interesting
happened with this particular Sparrow
it found that walking into the trap was
no big deal
so this same Sparrow has come back time
and again and they walk in and they just
go through the little teeter-totter
mechanism they walk in in they eat seed
and then it waits for me to release it
and there it goes now it's back again
catch it again release it again
now I'd like you to take the time to
look in the description of this video
and see some of the links about what the
National Wildlife Federation recommends
about the house sparrow this
white-crowned sparrow became so tame
that i could actually get right up next to it
to make this video of course as
soon as it flies away and there's food
in it it's right back in the sparrow
trap so a side effect I did not
anticipate is that some of the birds
become so comfortable going into the
trap and waiting to be collected and
released that they come back often and
they actually become desensitized to
people I don't know if that's a good
idea I don't really want a wild bird as
a pet but this bird obviously doesn't
see it as a problem to come be handled
and turned loose over and over again let's
look at the details of the trap this is
a teeter-totter mechanism it is
completely adjustable you'll see that
there's a counterbalance at the other end
it's just a large bolt this is a bird's
eye view of the landing board and then
that's what entices them into the trap
is that collection of food there
we also sprinkle food on the top there's
a release here for this hardware cloth
so if a bird did get into this part of
the mechanism you could open it and
release it and you can see how the bolt
would slide closer or farther out to
make it either more sensitive or less
sensitive but I think it's perfect and
that's the way it came right from the
manufacturer this holding area is the
perfect length which you can stick your
arm in up to the elbow and reach any
part of it and here's the opening now
once you open it it can probably benefit
from a little handle here but I just use
my fingernail there's a rubber flap
there so that when you open it and
before you stick your arm in and the
birds don't just fly out and of course
the whole purpose of it is so that you
can hold the birds and decide whether to
handle them release them whatever you
decide to do but again never set up this
mechanism without monitoring it closely
and here it is
Sparrow traps dotnet where I got this
one there are probably several other
versions out there this is the one that
I decided on and it works perfectly and
does not stress the birds and now will
just give you a close-up look at what
keeps the birds in the holding area once
they come through it's just a
lightweight piece of hardware cloth that
the birds look through and they see that
there's more food and of course they
have no options unless you're a
lightweight chipping sparrow they just
push this little hanging piece open and
they walk in and there they are so
overall it's a pretty simple design it's
wide open so the birds don't panic and
injure themselves while they're in it of
course you definitely do not want to
leave birds in this for a sustained period
of time and before we close out this
video I'm going to show you one last
look of a chipping sparrow going in
moving popping out and then flying away
so I don't even have to go and release
that bird of course we're still going to
see the white-crowned sparrow again I'm
sure over and over so if you're looking
at live catch sparrow traps this is a
pretty good design never use one without
monitoring it thanks for watching and I
hope you'll stick around to see some of
my other videos