House (English) Sparrow?????

[Helimech]

My yard has become empty of the usual birds I like to see around and these little boogers shown in the attached pic have overrun my property. I've never dealt with house sparrows before, but I've seen Ted take out a metric butt ton of them. I just want to confirm that these little balls of feathers are house sparrows and if so, expect a nice video on our style of removal. 

 

[airgunaddict]

yup that's definitely a house sparrow. shoot em all

 

[Helimech]

I'm sitting here now with my Marauder ready to film just waiting for a reply . These guys don't like to stick around in one place for too long. Makes it hard to get the camera ready and shoot by the time they fly away. I'll get them though. 

 

[cj_86]

We are all sitting here with our air rifles waiting for helimech to invite us over. Haha

 

[iride]

That's the bird that got me into PCP guns, I Marauder and two Crickets, A Sheldon compressor , Great white tank , All because of the Sparrow,
I have killed thousands of them, Lots of good birds come around when you get rid of this pest,,,
Some say the .25 is to much for this little bird, But I really like my .25
Mike

 

[Helimech]

Squirrels are the reason I got into air rifles. I am so glad they did. I can't remember when I shot my .22lr last. It's just not as useful as my Marauder. Now that the sparrows have come in and I've finally gotten the squirrels to a manageable number, I have a new use for my air rifle. I was able to get one kill on camera last night. It took me a little bit of figuring out their behaviors to time my shot when they were at the feeder. (The "feeder" is seed in a pile in front of my shed for safe shooting). I'm up right now just waiting for them to come in. I do believe I have my routine down pat of turning the camera on, getting it ready for the shot, and finding the sparrow in the crosshairs before they take off with some seed. We will find out today. 

 

[WCT_Editor]

Here is a link that will help with identification http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/house_sparrow/id. 

 

[JohnL57]

Hey that's a useful site, especially the sound clips-thanks for steering me to it!
John

 

[Helimech]

Yes, that link is awesome. It shows all of the colorations of these annoying little turds. So far today, the sparrows will not take the feed. Then I seen a cat walking around. I did manage to take out a squirrel though. I've been waiting a long time to get a shot at this guy. He has (had) half of a tail and was the worst culprit for tearing up my screens for the windows. I finally got him. Now I wait for more sparrows. 

 

[jfrazier30]

I develop a nervous eye twitch whenever I hear that annoying Sparrow Chirp. Oo 

 

[CptMoonlight]

Yes, I am living in a town that does not allow air rifle discharge, but I have about 30 house sparrows that have taken over my feeder. I may have to go American ninja on them one of these days and take a few (dozen) of them out.

 

[Springerpanhead]

Yes, I am living in a town that does not allow air rifle discharge, but I have about 30 house sparrows that have taken over my feeder. I may have to go American ninja on them one of these days and take a few (dozen) of them out.

Plenty of super quiet moderated pcps out there

 

[Ranchibi]

Looks like a HOSP but try and make sure it's not a house finch, they look very similar. Female Finches have thicker beaks that the upper and lower cross, easiest way to tell them apart and males have red heads down to the shoulders. If HOSP's....snipe them all and fun while doing it!

 

[TN_Yankee]

Y’all realize this thread is almost 8 years old?

 

[L.Leon]

Y’all realize this thread is almost 8 years old?

And the house sparrows are still there I bet… they are sneaky little bastards….

 

[TC724]

I'm sitting here now with my Marauder ready to film just waiting for a reply . These guys don't like to stick around in one place for too long. Makes it hard to get the camera ready and shoot by the time they fly away. I'll get them though.

Crackers, they for some reason love crackers and they crumble into little bits easily which makes them stick around to try to pick it all up. You can kill and keep attracting an absurd about of jut sparrows this way.

 

[LuAnn Drakos]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[rapstarD]

I’m not a fan of the magpie either. Where I am in canada they are big populations. Ive been practicing with the mark1 for my backyard shots