Around the outside of My house Sparrows break our light fixtures and make nests in them and every time we go to clean it out and install a new fixture we hear new babies! They are like there 5 set of babies and I was wondering how many times they are going to reproduce so we can get them out of there and use our lights again.
2007-07-23 09:30:25 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
Since they have such a SHORT incubation period, they can nest over and over as long as the weather is nice -- you are just going to have to watch and remove the nest AS SOON as the latest batch fledges:
"The House Sparrow has the shortest incubation period of all the birds: 10-12 days and a female can lay 25 eggs a summer in New England."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Sparrow
2007-07-23 09:38:27 · answer #1 · answered by Yahzmin ♥♥ 4ever 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
If the sparrows are introduced birds - as they are in the USA, Canada and Australia - they have no protection at all apart from animal cruelty laws. You should not allow them to breed. Rip the nests out as they build them and if they have already laid eggs or hatched young, break the eggs and kill the young. Block the hole where they are nesting.
Besides being a feral pest, they will damage your house, produce more sparrows and bring lice into your house. You really don't want bird lice. Stop them breeding.
2007-07-23 11:50:08 · answer #2 · answered by tentofield 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A female house sparrow lays about 25-30 eggs each summer for up to five or six years. So you could possibly try cleaning it out on winter, when the hatclings learn how to fly and leave their nests.
2007-07-23 11:43:06 · answer #3 · answered by Monkey 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like a house sparrow problem. You need to get rid of them. If you don't they'll just keep coming back and keep reproducing. Eventually you'll have a small scale disaster.
These birds where introduced, referred to as an exotic pest species. Not only can they cause property damage, but may pose a health threat. A major problem with house sparrows is competition with native birds. They reproduce so quickly and in such numbers that they dominate other sparrows and a few other bird species.
So, don't feel the least bit squeamish about getting rid of them.
Problem Birds: Sparrows - Removal and Control
http://www.hawkeye.ca/sparrows.shtml
House or English Sparrow
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW119
Passer domesticus (house sparrow)
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Passer_domesticus.html
2007-07-23 10:43:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Do you live in the US? The house sparrow is an aggressive and destructive invasive species that breeds prolifically. They are destroying the eggs and nests of our native species. Don't feel that you have to protect them. I would do everything I could to make sure they did not breed.
2007-07-23 09:57:43 · answer #5 · answered by Sandy G 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
They like where they are and could keep coming back to a comfy home for a long time until it is so filthied up with crap they can't get in. Probably when cold weather sets in they will quit paying rent and move on. Happy house cleaning.
2007-07-23 09:53:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋