Jackdaw horror

Hi Fergus

Any corvid is capable of offing a sparrow sized bird if the opportunity presents itself.  If your garden sparrow was a genuine kill then it was possibly sick or somehow disabled before it bought it.

Equally all corvids are eager scavengers and there is every possibility  that the deceased sparrow was collected as carrion. This would be more likely in the case of a Jackdaw than it going to the effort of catching and despatching a healthy adult bird.

JBNTS

That isn't a great thing to witness, and I would have been horrified. Sparrows are my all time favourite bird.

I have sparrows and other small birds galore, and also a lot of jackdaws. They all seem to rub along together without any obvious aggression or problems. They will even share a feeder.

 

We have lots of visiting jackdaws and none take any notice of other birds. If there are alternative sources of food, they're unlikely to bother with the hassle of killing another healthy bird. I would guess that the sparrow maybe hit the window and died, or came a cropper some other way, and the jackdaws took advantage.

Thanks for your answers folks. I agree that the sparrow was probably already dead or injured in some way and the jackdaws quickly dispatched it. There wasn't a shortage of food so I can't see why they would attack a healthy bird, and they usually get on perfectly fine with the other birds that visit my garden. It wasn't a nice thing to witness all the same and I hope I don't get a repeat performance.

Thanks again

Fergus

We live in a semi rural location where over the lest 2 years there have been a number of new housing estates popping up

Two days ago my neighbour witnessed two jackdaws attacking a perfectly healthy looking blackburn, she tried to intervene but couldn't save it and had to put it out of its misery.

Yesterday in my own garden I witnessed one jackdaw pinning down a perfectly healthy young starling feeding on the ground in my garden and it only relented when I rapped on my window loudly and frightened all the birds away. The same thing happened again today.

Last year I had 4 jackdaws at any one time in my garden, this year I have 6 terrorising smaller birds like this and monopolising the food and water supplies. It has reached a point where I no longer see robins, goldfinches, blackbirds and green finches, now all I see are jackdaws and pigeons and the sparrows and starlings who are prepared to risk being pecked to death.

There is quite simply not enough food for all of them due to the marginalisation of their territory. I can only see this getting worse when the build a further 1700 houses around our home. I can't help thinking if we keep going like this, the film The Birds may come home to roost.

I have to agree with Robbo. I’m a little puzzled why you keep putting out so much food when you have identified that the Jackdaws take the bulk of it, and they are now a problem. IMO you are over-feeding with such a large quantity of food, and it’s obvious you are strengthening your Jackdaw population at the expense of other species. I would stop putting any food out at all now at least until winter, and hope that this encourages the Jackdaws to move on.

Also, we always advise people to change their username from your full email address, this is a public forum and you could end up with loads of unwanted emails.

Thanks Mr B, again useful information, well most of it.

Part of it seems to suggest that I am responsible for an increase of the Jackdaw population, which isn't possible given I only moved in to this house and started feeding the birds this summer, assuming they don't breed in the winter. But I do take your point, if I continue to feed then I am likely to only add to their population.

I started feeding because of all the housing developments that are going up in our area, in some way trying to compensate for birds losing their habit, due to our need for housing. I just anticipate that 11 months into feeding them the garden would be overwhelmed with Jackdaws.

There is a lot on over feeding but very little guidance available on what constitutes over feeding or conversely what 'good' looks like.

Based on yours and Robbo's advice, I have taken the decision to remove all hanging feeders completely and only put the 2 ground feeders out in the winter containing a mixture of calci-worms, suet pellets and seed.

Thank you for saving me a small fortune.

My comments based on you mentioning, in two separate posts, feeding birds last year ie. - "Last year went very well. This year the starlings are not getting to the food at all, either because the Jackdaws are eating it all, or because the Jackdaws are protecting it all. " - appears contradictory to your statement of only moving and feeding birds this summer.

Also, you appear to have assumed (wongly, i should add) that i attribute the increase in your visiting Jackdaw population to their successful breeding (although this of course will be being helped by the large quanities of readily available food), but from your own evidence you are attracting more Jackdaws to your garden. Birds will be attracted to an easy meal, and other birds quickly recognise where that meal is, and join in the feast. Put simply, the more Jackdaws you have, the more you are likely to get. Dominant birds like Corvids seem to have voracious appetites, and they will very often drive other species away and eat everything in sight.

I am overrun with Jackdaws , Robns , finches and most other small birds have vacated my garden . 

Seems a good year for jackdaws........I had 11 in the apple tree yesterday!