# One less Sparrow



## truthornothing (May 18, 2015)

Found one of our bluebird boxes had been over taken by sparrows this morning. For you that feel sorry for these tiny foreign invaders. They arrived in the US around 1851 and are now one of the most common birds at the expense of native species which they will run out of their own nests. Sparrows and starlings are two of the most prolific invaders in the US. I eradicate starlings with extreme predjudice. I drive through the cornfields of Central IL to and from work. I take care of any starlings I see on the power lines. they are skittish and often fly away when I stop. The ones that don't I shoot from the car window. Got three this morning on the way in and a lot on the way home for lunch. Sparrows are less of a concern and harder to hit on account of their size.

Their raid of my Blue bird boxes changed that. Its war on sparrows month. I took this one near said box at about 10 yards with 3/8 steel powered by 1" Theraband Black.


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## truthornothing (May 18, 2015)

Sorry, said sparrow rooted out my bluebirds. Humans and animals are totally different. Ever care to consider how much wildlife dies on your behalf every day just by your modern existence? How many mammals die from farming housing road building? Bluebirds are endangered Sparrows run rampant. Conservation sometimes requires evening the scales. If you are anti

hunting perhaps you should keep off the hunting forum. 86'd three more English starlings on the way home, they are a nuisance. They even make special poisons to eliminate them. Look up "starlicide." Man brought Sparrows and Starlings here and unleashed them on the native wildlife. Sometimes man has to step back in and even the score. I'll let you know if the sparrow seeks revenge. Again if you are against legal hunting the stay off the hunting thread. Oh and I am part Cherokee so the light skinned stuff doesn't work here either.


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## fsa46 (Jul 8, 2012)

BC-Slinger said:


> Its kind of funny we judge the birds like we do. When that is how light skinned people got in north America as well. We basically showed up took the native peoples land and then invaded all of the space. Sounds like the birds we brought here are just following in our foot steps kind of hard to hold that against them when the most invasive and destructive species is humans as we destroy everything in our path to make homes for our over sized family's and destroy everything native to the areas for homes for our selves.
> 
> But people do not look at what we do as invasive or wrong lol when we are the worst sinners of this horrible act of world wide domination.
> 
> ...


I won't even comment on this for the fear of being banned.


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## truthornothing (May 18, 2015)

LOL, I have learned from dealing with folks with similar views on Facebook to use logic and not be nasty. My original major was biology. Man has screwed up nature so badly that sometimes intervention is needed to try and straighten out the mess people created in the first place. Flying carp, Snake Head fish...the list is endless. They all just want to live, but since man put them is a place where they have no natural predators they will destroy the existing species that also just want to live. ....it has to be done.


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## Henry the Hermit (Jun 2, 2010)

I removed the video, because it has nothing to do with hunting and seems to be intended to incite antis.


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## truthornothing (May 18, 2015)

Henry in Geneva said:


> I removed the video, because it has nothing to do with hunting and seems to be intended to incite antis.


Ok that is fine it wasn't meant to incite the anti hunters but to show that there are worse ways to cull the starling population sorry


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## Ifab25 (Jun 5, 2013)

I love birds, however despise those two species because of some of the things you already mentioned. Aggressive pest birds.


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## Ibojoe (Mar 13, 2016)

I really like to cut weeds off with 1\2'' marbles...... senseless murder. Good job on the post. Keep up the good work!


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## Clever Moniker (May 12, 2013)

Great shot!  Thread rating gets 5 stars from me.

Cheers,

CM


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## pult421 (Aug 13, 2015)

truthornothing said:


> LOL, I have learned from dealing with folks with similar views on Facebook to use logic and not be nasty. My original major was biology. Man has screwed up nature so badly that sometimes intervention is needed to try and straighten out the mess people created in the first place. Flying carp, Snake Head fish...the list is endless. They all just want to live, but since man put them is a place where they have no natural predators they will destroy the existing species that also just want to live. ....it has to be done.


 thats why I dont belive in god and stuff.. if he were real.. him putting us here.. he would have intervened already.. not just when the bible says he did.. but like direct stuff.. like youre sitting in a doctors office and youre next to this dude and bam an angel shows up like hey are you benjamin ravioli the man who murdered and raped a few women?? Yeaaa god says you need to die.. and then he slices him with a sword right in half. But that does not happen.. soo .. no god. Only the avengers lol


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## gabeb (Jan 1, 2016)

I love to shoot the starlings and sparrows to help the native birds as doves that serve a purpose as food. Also they provide target practice and will die with a less than perfect shot.


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## shudaizi (Jun 2, 2016)

I applaud the bluebird boxes and your overall defense of them, but unfortunately the bird you've killed is not a House Sparrow (Passer domesticus, the European transplant) but a native Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina). It is native to North America, and thus not an "invader" at all. (Look at the rufous cap, the white band below it, the grey lower patch, and the white throat, combined with the small beak -- these are diagnostic marks for the Chipping Sparrow. Compare the pictures below to yours.)

Chipping Sparrow:










House Sparrow:










In fact, the House Sparrow has actually reduced numbers of Chipping Sparrow.

As a biology major you should know that there are dozens of native sparrow species that have an important part to play in our ecology -- just as important as the bluebirds you are trying to help, actually. Implying that all sparrows are "pests" is wrong. If you can't tell the difference between them and the non-native invasive species, then perhaps you shouldn't be killing them. Learning some basics of bird ID is not hard and should be part of responsible pest control and hunting. Many of our native songbirds (not just bluebirds, and including some sparrows!) are in dire need of protection -- they shouldn't be killed because of mistaken identity.

I'm not anti-hunting or even against eradicating pests -- I have no problem with culling as many starlings as you can -- but I think it's important that we don't hurt our native species by mistaking them for invasive non-natives.


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## truthornothing (May 18, 2015)

Drat, and i checked wiki before I did anything, sorry


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## shudaizi (Jun 2, 2016)

truthornothing said:


> Drat, and i checked wiki before I did anything, sorry


Sparrows are small birds so it can be hard to notice the details at first, but the details are important because they separate the good guys from the bad. Learning a few of the common ones well will go a long ways to preventing future mistakes. (Plus, birding is fun and can be done anywhere, anytime.)


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