Brown headed cowbirds?
- Thread starter Dr. Kralenstein
- Start date
Correct. I'll just remember to tell the law man " hey I asked him if he was going to commit any depredations, and he laughed and said YEAH BUDDY!"
I think the whole protection act is a joke anyways. Even if everyone started blasting them, there would be an endless supply of devil birds to shoot.
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My best buddy and I were squirrel hunting WAY back in the 1980's when a CO approached, asking us what we were hunting. The conversation drifted to crow and since they were not in season at that time, we discussed depredation when he told us, "You can shoot crows if they are doing crop damage, going to do crop damage or returning from doing crop damage. See that one, he's going to do crop damage and see that one? He's returning from crop damage."
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Dad had me shooting them off his bird feeders and they start to get used to you and keep their distance. I had to hide in the back of the truck, under a car port 30 yards away so they would feel comfortable at the feeders.
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In my state, you can shoot ‘blackbirds’ which include … grackles, starlings, cowbirds, and red wing blackbirds. They all flock together at certain times of the year, numbering in the hundreds of millions.
One of those times is during the fall deer season and just after sunrise you can’t hear a deer crack a branch right under your stand as the huge flocks leave the roost. PS… don’t look up.
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There protected here in Texas BUT.............
I always shoot in self defence , Them birds are big in TEXAS.
Mike
I always shoot in self defence , Them birds are big in TEXAS.
Mike
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I live next to a huge wilderness management area and the conservation officers travel our road for access to it.
One shot at the wrong time and I'd loose my guns. I'll play by the rules.
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Here in PA , all birds & game/fur, are protected or game except for English house sparrows, European Starlings , and Pigeons . And Sparrows & Starlings can't be shot around deer season. Crows are game w/ seasons also .
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cattle egrets, Egrets are a totally different bird , cowbirds are small looks like a black bird and makes a sound like dripping water .
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True , when isn't a crow going to ,coming from or in the act of crop damage or depredation ? Several years ago my wife & young son & I witnessed two crows harass and eventually take out a mockingbird from the air in the yard across the street. They watched in disbelief as the pair worked in harmony to repeatedly pummel the mockingbird until defenseless , then started to feed off of it. As a farm kid , I knew as soon as my Dad planted corn my brothers & I hunted crows to hang a few on tall posts throughout the field to repel them or they would pick a lot of seedlings .Now that it's common for farmers to bag silage & wrap hay bales ,crows destroy much of that wrapping by pecking holes in the bag or wrap ,just as they would tear open garbage bags.
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Cowbirds, HOSPs, starlings and grackles are all pest species. They get no quarter from me. They chase away all the song birds and eat all the bird seed. Shoot, shovel, shut up.
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I managed to get 2 starlings and a cow bird within 5 minutes and they ended DRT within 1 foot of each other! The cow bird dropped in to see the first starling and after he dropped, the next starling came in for a look. All at 24 yards with a .177 Wolverine R. I would also get rid of grackles until I found out you can't shoot them in Oklahoma.
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I'm a song bird nut, and I did not know that cow birds are a brood parasite..... guess what just got added to my hit list! Thank you for informing me and others, I appreciate it, as do the native songbirds!!
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That's what got me going after grackles and starlings. I already took care of the sparrows since they get into my chicken feed and coop. Once I started seeing how the grackles scared away cardinals and my brown thrasher, I got to work.
Now I have 2 mated pairs of cardinals living in my English ivy/honeysuckle which engulfs my fence. My brown thrasher finally has a mate, and they're always together in my yard.
I wish I didn't have so many robins though! They never sleep I swear!
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