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VS Ryan
Founder/Administrator
Southern Wildlife Network
NWF Habitat Steward Host in Training!
Welcome to the Southern Wildlife Network!

This is a great place for the bird lover and wildlife enthusiast alike. Please take a moment to read about our organization on the home page.

Join our free forum and be part of the community! Simply click the button at the button of this box labeled "Register" and follow the directions. You will need an active email address to complete the registration process.

VS Ryan
Founder/Administrator
Southern Wildlife Network
NWF Habitat Steward Host in Training!


 
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Sparrow Behavior and Theory
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Before I start, I think it's important for you to truly understand my position in this world of birds.  I am not a scientist, and I am not highly educated on the ways of any bird.  I have a good general knowledge in the world of zoology stemming from a deep rooted passion that began when I was just a boy, and that led me to study on various creatures extensively on my own accord.

 

I opened a nuisance wildlife control business a few years ago which went quite well.  I was a natural, having a thorough understanding of animal behaviors and yet I never really knew where I acquired that knowledge.  Some would say that people are simply destined to do what they are destined to do, and I believe this is what I was destined to do.  I am horrible at building things so far, and I tend to be impatient at times, but I certainly understand the animals.  I advanced my natural abilities by studying everything I could find on the subject of nuisance wildlife, but sometimes you just have to learn from the animals themselves.

 

Each time I have an encounter with HOSPs I learn something new.  My first capture with the first trap I made, for example, taught me a fair amount about this species.  I already knew that they were very industrious and intelligent, but I gave them too much credit.  The door to my first trap was a one way door, simply because it was wider than the entry hole.  The door would open inward but wouldn't open outward.  This male would constantly try to squeeze through the gap between the top of the door and the trap frame, which took it's attention off of the fact that it simply had to wedge the door open with it's beak.

 

These are things that we have to observe on our own to truly understand them.  Now that I have seen that, and have observed the sparrow's panicked response to our presence in times of capture, I can use that to my advantage when designing traps.  Now naturally I build these traps and expirement with them because I enjoy the challenge.  There are any number of sites that offer any number of popular traps that work well that don't require all this effort, but that removes a bit of the experience for me.  When you put more of yourself into a project you tend to get more out of it.  If I simply used a commercial trap there is no way I would have recognized the behavioral traits that I have thus far.

 

You will find that I intentionally avoid sounding overly scientific for one specific purpose: most people either don't understand what is being said or they lose interest.  I want this site to be easy to understand and use.  That being said, the people that do put alot of collegiate science into this subject are valuable resources and I appreciate them very much.

 

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I recently read an article on www.sialis.org pertaining to the behavior of House Sparrows which was outstanding in my opinion.  It discussed in detail the human factor, that is assigning human emotion to animals.  If you are to be objective and truly understand their behavior you simply can't be doing this.  Animals are not humans, therefore to assume that an animal would behave like a human is counterproductive.  A cat, for example, tends to show it's owner more affection when it's hungry.  This is not merely a coincidence, and if you ignore this fact the cat very well may go on hungry for a fair amount of time simply because you failed to interpret the behavior properly. 

 

The writer also mentions her feelings towards sparrows, feelings that I share.  We do not hate sparrows, we simply understand that their impact is unacceptable.  Some people will argue that all birds are native since all continents were one land mass during the days of Pangea, and that is a decent argument.  The problem with that argument is that it isn't healthy for the environment for any one species to dominate all the others.  There has to be a healthy balance.  Sparrows play a significant role in reducing insect numbers and cleaning up food mess that sloppy people leave behind, so a controlled population might be a good thing.  Unfortunately, to achieve the controlled population mark, it will take alot of work and that also means you don't release the sparrows.  Simple as that.

 

Another argument is that people don't see the sparrows behaving in the way that we know they do, but that they actually nest with other birds.  This is true on occasion, they may nest with other birds. That situation simply won't last long, and any amount of research on the subject will show that that is not the norm.

 

In conclusion, we have alot to learn about sparrow behavior.  I believe we can only truly learn and understand these things by being a part of whatever program we decide to use to control them.  Sometimes it takes more than simply placing a trap in the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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