I know this isn’t strictly about birding but who doesn’t like Eastern Bluebirds?

So this spring I put up two bluebird nest boxes (X-Box design on EMT posts) only to have the bluebirds repeatedly evicted by house sparrows.

A few times I ready about using fishing line to deter the house sparrows, and it has actually worked! I attached two horizontal beams to the tops of the houses and then hung monofilament weighted with large hex nuts.

That was about six weeks ago and now we have a bluebird family in one and house wrens in the other.

Edit - on my lappy so I’ll post some links

  • @Crackhappy
    link
    English
    61 year ago

    How exactly does that work to deter sparrows?

    • @Biff
      link
      English
      71 year ago

      I know a similar method is used to keep birds from grabbing fish in a Koi pond. Something about the filament deters them. The sparrows often land on top of the box first so I wonder if this has the same effect of stopping them from dropping into the filament.

  • cadamanteus
    link
    fedilink
    English
    41 year ago

    I wonder if this would work for my feeders, how clever! They’re such a menace.