House Sparrows killed our Blue Tits

[Wayne E Edge]

We had a nest of Blue Tits in our wall, all was going fine until yesterday when a pair of House Sparrows were hanging around the entrance hole. The adult was fighting them off but without success.
This morning I found a dead adult on the floor underneath the hole and 6 young tits in varying states of death and near death. I put two back but they jumped back out later. It looked like they were pretty much ready to fledge.
It couldn't have happened on worse day as we have strong NE winds and it has turned cold. Is this common for House Sparrows? I'm guessing they kicked them out.

Edited by Wayne E Edge on Tuesday 12th May 16:11

[Nightmare]

Wow that’s horrid......it’s not very common but they can be aggressive buggers like a lot of birds. Have to admit it’s the first time I’ve actually heard of them turfing other birds out of the nest though. We have a gobby family of sparrows in the front of the house that ‘own’ the front garden and hedge and are very quick to see off anything else. We have bluetits and great tits nesting in the back garden somewhere and they seem to rub along okay with the sparrows...but they really don’t interact that much. But we also have a pair of blackbirds and robins which make everything else seem super calm, so maybe just haven’t noticed

Poor bluetits anyway .

[Nimby]

What size hole in the box? The RSPB plans show 32mm for a generic nest box but that's too big for blue tits; 25mm is safer.

[Wayne E Edge]

Nimby said:

What size hole in the box? The RSPB plans show 32mm for a generic nest box but that's too big for blue tits; 25mm is safer.

It was in a natural hole in stone wall.

[BoggoStump]

Any chance you can bring them in the house and continue feeding or are they all dead?

[mike74]

House Sparrows are nasty bullying little bds I've seen them attack and kill a bat and every year they attack and drive away House Martins that attempt to nest under our eaves.

I always thought that irrational destructive behaviour and acts of pointless, needless violence were a purely human trait but it seems it does go on in nature as well, in my example with the House Martins they pose no threat or competition to the Sparrows at all yet they still have to attack them for no valid reason.

[Wayne E Edge]

BoggoStump said:

Any chance you can bring them in the house and continue feeding or are they all dead?

Unfortunately they all died. By the time I saw them it was too late. It would be probably impossible to feed young Blue Tits with all the caterpillars they need.

Never observed this with House Sparrows before.

[paintman]

An American link.
http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/PDF/FAQ/NABS%20fa...

Not a mention of this behaviour on the RSPB or BTO websites

[Boosted LS1]

Crikey, they really are unpopular over there.

[Uncle John]

Nature can be cruel.

I love & hate this time of year in equal measure.

Lovely to hear the birds singing & the tweets of the fledglings, next thing you look out the window & see Magpies raiding nests & killing the chicks. Not a lot you can do.

Did you know that the humble Robin is one our most aggressive birds, they peck at the nape of their enemies to sever the spinal cord!

[TR4man]

Uncle John said:

Nature can be cruel
Did you know that the humble Robin is one our most aggressive birds, they peck at the nape of their enemies to sever the spinal cord!

I once saw a crow do that to a young rabbit. Seemed to go on for ages before the poor rabbit died. The rabbit was making a pitiful squealing noise and I curse myself for not intervening but I suppose it is just nature’s way and is happening all the time.

I can see it in my mind in every detail even now, some four years after the event.

[mike74]

TR4man said:

I once saw a crow do that to a young rabbit. Seemed to go on for ages before the poor rabbit died. The rabbit was making a pitiful squealing noise and I curse myself for not intervening but I suppose it is just nature’s way and is happening all the time.

I can see it in my mind in every detail even now, some four years after the event.

Just today I saw a crow swoop down raptor style and try and capture a fit and healthy adult blackbird, luckily for the blackbird it evaded the crow and flew off.