[HN Gopher] Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a...
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Deter House Sparrows from your hanging feeder with a Magic Halo
(2017)
Author : gkop
Score : 42 points
Date : 2022-06-26 04:36 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.magichalo.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.magichalo.org)
| bananapear wrote:
| Why would you want to deter them? What's the problem with them vs
| other small birds?
| overthemoon wrote:
| Honestly, they are cute, I like having them around, but we've
| got some feeders, and if there are house sparrows, there are no
| other birds. We've been tweaking the feed we use and the form
| factor of the feeders to keep them away. Since we switched to
| nyjer, they've generally left the feeder alone, and we get
| finches instead.
| jackallis wrote:
| you're right but then some people also say burmese python are
| cute.
| thehoff wrote:
| In the product description:
|
| - Resist feeding non-native invasive HOSP to encourage native
| species
| peanut_worm wrote:
| House Sparrows are invasive in the United States and they are
| very aggressive. They destroy the nests of native birds to
| eliminate competition.
| trelane wrote:
| We have bluebird houses and can confirm. One box full of
| pecked-to-death bluebirds with house sparrow eggs on top of
| them is quite enough. I call the males "bearded bastards."
| Sjeiti wrote:
| That is peculiar. Because in the Netherlands the native house
| sparrow population has declined significantly since the '90s.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| Same is happening with Starlings. They are in decline in
| Europe but they thrive the North America
| anonu wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin
|
| Reminds me of this guy, who thought it would be a good idea
| to introduce the birds in Shakespeare's plays to the US.
| mikestew wrote:
| That's because it's the same guy who earlier sponsored the
| introduction of the house sparrow to the U. S.
| was_a_dev wrote:
| Thanks for the context - with House Sparrows being resident
| in Eurasia, I didn't understand the motivation for this
| either
| otter-rock wrote:
| Many birds commonly seen in the US are non-native, and
| reduce native bird populations significantly.
|
| https://abcbirds.org/blog20/invasive-birds/
| peanut_worm wrote:
| Odd that this list considers Cattle Egrets as invasive, I
| have never heard that before. They came here naturally
| just fairly recently. Their range expanded due to human
| activity but, rather interestingly, it was because they
| had more available food sources rather than physically
| being moved by people. They eat parasites off cattle so
| as cattle farming expanded so did their range.
|
| Herons are already capable of traversing entire
| continents, as can be seen with Night Herons. Cattle
| Egrets just didn't really have a reason to expand until
| recently.
| NohatCoder wrote:
| As far as this actually does anything, the birds will surely
| learn to ignore it / navigate around it. That is why house
| sparrows are so widespread in the first place, they have adapted
| to all the stupid things we humans do.
| soneca wrote:
| > _"the birds will surely learn to ignore it"_
|
| Why so sure? Did you read the papers and have any reasoning to
| why they will adapt?
| NohatCoder wrote:
| Because of learning and/or evolution. The paper doesn't offer
| any reason why they shouldn't adapt, as adaptation goes this
| one should be pretty easy as it is basically just a mindset,
| probably perfectly doable within the boundaries of learning.
| So if they become widespread, they will stop being effective,
| most likely within a few years. Just like the cartoon
| scarecrow with a bunch of crows resting on it, it wasn't
| dangerous, so the crows stopped caring.
| soneca wrote:
| So, considering adaptation would take years and depending
| on widespread adoption, this seems a very useful tool to
| employ for some time. Very far from "stupid things humans
| do".
| NohatCoder wrote:
| Arbitrarily prefer on bird over another, and believe that
| you can do something about it with passive-aggressive
| architecture. That is neither dog stupidity, zebra
| stupidity nor jellyfish stupidity. That is human
| stupidity in action.
| soneca wrote:
| Well, you _can_ do something.
| googlryas wrote:
| It isn't arbitrary - it is preferring native species to
| invasive species. Whether you agree with the logic or not
| - it isn't arbitrary.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| Even if the name sounds like an infomercial product, the
| science seems to be legit.
| mannykannot wrote:
| The behavior of most small animals is a good deal more
| stereotyped than it seems, and the experimental evidence shows
| they do have an inherent disposition to avoid this setup.
| Unless these devices become commonplace, there may be little
| pressure for them to adapt (this would not mean these devices
| would be pointless, as the main goal is to feed other species
| rather than cut off food from the sparrows.)
| skrap wrote:
| I made one of these halos 2 years ago, and my anecdotal
| experience is that the older (fully grown) sparrows can't figure
| it out, but the smaller, younger ones get through. Then, weeks
| later, I see fully grown sparrows at the feeder, ignoring the
| halo. Did the little ones "fit" and then grew too used to it to
| be spooked? Did the big ones learn from the little ones? I don't
| know.
|
| Another observation: Because of the number of sparrows, I did
| pull the whole feeder down and kept it down for months. Then,
| when winter approached, I put the feeder and the halo back up,
| and no house sparrows made it through again. Did the adults who
| were defeating it before forget? Move on? Die? Who knows!
| gaoshan wrote:
| Check out fwarnock's reply. They explain exactly this behavior.
| gkop wrote:
| I thought it was interesting that it's apparently a mystery _why_
| hanging lines deters sparrows (see the papers linked at the end
| of the first paragraph).
| vemv wrote:
| What would be a tldr for the paper (other than "it's a
| mystery":) )?
| gkop wrote:
| In candor, I only skimmed them, and all I saw was "the
| reasons lines repel certain birds is not fully understood".
| When I submitted the article here, part of me was hoping
| someone would know or speculate why and share with us..
| DrAwdeOccarim wrote:
| I wonder if avoiding the wires has anything to do with magnetic
| field lines? I know some birds can see the earth's magnetic
| field, maybe the wires appear larger to their magnetic senses
| compared to other bird species?
| maxbaines wrote:
| This surprised me, House Sparrows here in the UK seem to get
| along with other small birds just fine, I never see any
| aggression at feeders or in the hedgerows.
| DonaldFisk wrote:
| Other thing is that in England, notably London, as well as in
| some continental European cities, house sparrows are now scarce
| where they used to be abundant, so if you live there you
| shouldn't be deterring them.
|
| https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/b...
|
| https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/projects/cause...
|
| https://www.ua-magazine.com/2019/09/25/an-unsolved-mystery-t...
| googlryas wrote:
| Might have something to do with house sparrows evolving there
| and it being their native range, so other animals have had time
| to learn how to deal with them.
| fwarnock wrote:
| Thank you so much for the interest everyone. I stopped production
| of the Halo device just for the Summer as we recollect parts and
| build inventory again. We tend to discourage Summer (July & Aug)
| mix-seed feeding in any case, since juvenile House Sparrows are
| generally immune to the wires and carry this into adulthood. This
| is where halo efficacy is somewhat lower in the Summer as seen in
| the U of Neb paper. Everything about this device is contained in
| my blog. Start home and scroll down, or at least check out these
| two:
|
| https://www.magichalo.org/2022/01/magic-halo-3-years-in-revi...
| https://www.magichalo.org/2022/01/as-we-enter-our-4th-year.h...
|
| We find that, overall, the Halo is about 85% effective according
| to those surveyed. Cheers, -Francis
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(page generated 2022-06-27 23:02 UTC)