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Bluebird Houses - Successful House Sparrow Prevention!

I know this isn't strictly about birding but who doesn't like Eastern Bluebirds?

So this spring I put up two bluebird nest boxes (X-Box design on EMT posts) only to have the bluebirds repeatedly evicted by house sparrows.

A few times I ready about using fishing line to deter the house sparrows, and it has actually worked! I attached two horizontal beams to the tops of the houses and then hung monofilament weighted with large hex nuts.

That was about six weeks ago and now we have a bluebird family in one and house wrens in the other.

Edit - on my lappy so I'll post some links

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  • How exactly does that work to deter sparrows?

    • I know a similar method is used to keep birds from grabbing fish in a Koi pond. Something about the filament deters them. The sparrows often land on top of the box first so I wonder if this has the same effect of stopping them from dropping into the filament.