Sparrows !

Gremlin

Gremlin

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Ingrid
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I hung a heart shaped fat ball feeder on a trellis in the front of my home.
It's a communal garden and I not allowed to put up a feeding station, but this summer
I placed a trough with a trellis attached for sweet peas
The fat balls have been slowly crumbling but never seen any birds on them so I set up a trail cam
Was surprised to see Sparrow, flying up to the balls and either pecking at them or scratching
whilst on flight, then land to eat the bits that have been displaced, or others sitting on the trough
waiting for the titbits
Didn't realise they did this, is it common bevhaviour ?
Would love to hear from others, I never saw it with sparrows in my previous garden
 
Tree and House sparrows demolish the fat balls in a few minutes here! They do not go for the ones where teh holder has a fine mesh, just the wide open (>1 inch mesh).
In our previous garden we rarely had sparrows:(
 
nc_killie said:
They do not go for the ones where teh holder has a fine mesh, just the wide open (>1 inch mesh).
Click to expand...

Mine is wide open wire mesh, I never use that fine nylon stuff, seen blue tits get caught in it :(
 
I'm guessing you mean hovering whilst pecking at the seed Ingrid?

I took some distant shots this last summer, of our resident House Sparrows 'hovering' kestrel style whilst taking seed from meadow grass, I'll see if I can dig one out
 
Phil-D said:
I'm guessing you mean hovering whilst pecking at the seed Ingrid?

I took some distant shots this last summer, of our resident House Sparrows 'hovering' kestrel style whilst taking seed from meadow grass, I'll see if I can dig one out
Click to expand...

Kind of Phil, but only for seconds, sort fly in peck and out again
I intend to set the camera up again when the rain and wind stop,
leaves blowing across the garden meant for a lot of blank footage
 
Gremlin said:
Kind of Phil, but only for seconds, sort fly in peck and out again
I intend to set the camera up again when the rain and wind stop,
leaves blowing across the garden meant for a lot of blank footage
Click to expand...

I remember thinking when I saw them, it wasn't something I'd seen before and we've had resident HS's for over 25yrs

It was hard to actually get one taking seed from the grass but this one here was hovering looking for grass seed, heavy cropped but you get the idea

Hovering Sparrow 800.jpg
 
Phil-D said:
I remember thinking when I saw them, it wasn't something I'd seen before and we've had resident HS's for over 25yrs

It was hard to actually get one taking seed from the grass but this one here was hovering looking for grass seed, heavy cropped but you get the idea
Click to expand...

Nice one. we learn something new all the time, like you, sparrows were one of the most common birds and yet I never
saw this behaviour, thanks for sharing the picture
 
I've not seen that behaviour, Ingrid but the house sparrows here have learnt to hang onto the fat feeder(one of those square wire mesh ones) and feed like blue tits.

Dave
 
Be interesting to see what happens next time I set the camera up
I got some meal worms and suet buts yesterday, I'll sprinkle them on the
planter later now they have started feeding there
 
yup we see this all the time, tis a common behaviour :)
 
It gets better every time I try, yesterday I had sparrows again, blackbird and robin.
Been cheating a bit as these are urban foxes although on the edge of the countryside,
thrown down a few dog biscuits that do disappear overnight and was well rewarded last
night with loads of clips of what I think are two foxes, one slight smaller then the other
You guys are right this is addictive :)
 
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