Bird feeding wrong babies

[wildflowergardener]

Something strange is happening - my Eurasian sparrow is feeding the wren babies and the momma (or papa) wren is none too happy about it. I moved the birdfeeder away from the wren house so there weren't so many birds flocking around it and I'm wondering if I confused the sparrow. Unfortunately the wrens don't seem to know what to do with the sunflower seed the sparrow is trying to give it.

I've moved things back the way they were - hopefully that will clear things up. I guess best not to do too much rearranging when birds are nesting.

Meg

[wildflowergardener]

1. update and bald cardinal

Well this has been a strange day. I moved the feeder back to where it was, and opened up the umbrella at my table that I had earlier closed, and now the birds seem to be back to feeding the babies at the correct houses. I guess they must use all these things to tell where there nest is.

In the meantime - I just saw a pathetic looking bald cardinal at my birdfeeder. At first I thought it had been attacked by the cat that lives next door - but now after doing some reading apparently this is caused by other reasons such as possibly molting, or mites. Well I'm glad to know at least he wasn't almost eaten (probably) I guess if the cat had tried to eat him he wouldn't have plucked out all his head feathers first.

Meg

[Proud_Democratt]

2. What do Eurasian Sparrows look like, in comparisan

to the common house sparrow?

[wildflowergardener]

3. Eurasian sparrow

They are a little smaller. The main obvious difference is a black spot on the side of their head - the male and female look alike also.

Here is a link to a picture. http://epsc.wustl.edu/~rlk/wgnss/ets/

Actually the sparrow came back again and tried to feed them later on in the day and when the wren was harassing the bird for getting too near to it's chicks the sparrow went inside (did several times but didn't seem to be harming them). I was going to put a 1" hole restrictor on it but don't want to trap the sparrow inside - I am not sure if it left or not.

I'm going to leave well enough alone tonight. The only thing I can think of is maybe the bird lost it's chicks or something. This was a eurasian sparrow's nest last year - I guess it could have been hers. I get only the Eurasian ones in these houses cause I put hole restrictors on them that the house sparrows can't get in, but the Eurasian ones can. The wren's a little smaller though. I'm happy to have the wrens make there house there - I just hope neither hurts the other or the babies.

Meg

[Proud_Democratt]

4. Thanks for the info...

and pic. You mentioned the Katy Trail in another thread, you were talking about the the birds there. I live about 3 miles away from the trail.....near the Kisker Road intersection. What a small world!

[wildflowergardener]

5. katy trail

I just looked that up on the map. It looks like you are in st. charles then. I'm not actually real close to the trail, though I do drive down there occassionally. I'm in Webster Groves, MO. I just rode on the trail on Sun and saw 5 indigo buntings.

That book I linked to before is a really helpful one. It has info on what time of year you are likely to see certain birds in the St. Louis area, so it's helpful if you are seeing something new you haven't seen before - to figure out what it might be.

Meg