House Sparrow and Purple Martin fighting in midair. I have never seen such an aggressive bird as this House Sparrow! He would repeatedly attack the Purple Martins.
You might think House Sparrows are cute, but they attack and kill adult Bluebirds, sometimes trapping and decapitating them in the nestbox and building their own nest on top of the corpse. They destroy eggs and young. At a minimum, they often harass native birds (especially more timid species like Chickadees) into abandoning nestboxes. A House Sparrow flock near a nestbox can also cause premature fledging. House Sparrows are probably the number one enemy of Bluebirds and Purple Martins.
Interesting shot, Jody. Out here, Starlings are their enemy and the PM's nesting boxes must be designed so that the PM can crawl into the box, but the Starling can't.
Wow and Wow! That's amazing.....thanks for the info too. How you are able to get these amazing captures is beyond me but I really enjoy your posts. Thanks
Jody, your in flight shots of fast moving birds and ducks are amazing. Your captures are the measuring sticks for my experimenting. I can't seem to reach your end of the stick.
Imagemaster wrote:
Interesting shot, Jody. Out here, Starlings are their enemy and the PM's nesting boxes must be designed so that the PM can crawl into the box, but the Starling can't.
Tony
Yeah that's what it said in that web page I quoted from. The problem is the House Sparrows can fit in where Purple Martins, Bluebirds, Chickadees, etc...nest in. They are bullies of the Bird world.
I also read that in the States it is legal to kill House Sparrow hatchlings, nests, adults, anything, it is a free for all on them to try to slow them down I guess.
billym wrote:
Wow and Wow! That's amazing.....thanks for the info too. How you are able to get these amazing captures is beyond me but I really enjoy your posts. Thanks
looks like the Martin has the upper hand in this bout .
Vern