Originally posted by chickentender Indeed. Luckily I get few of them in my yard at my feeders... have only seen 2 or 3 this season (and not a single House Sparrow which is miraculous - they're all hanging out at McDonald's) but I've a BB gun in the closet next to my patio slider. They seem to KNOW when I'm coming for them - I've yet to have one stick around long enough to be targeted.
Years ago I had a small cabin with a wood stove. When autumn came I loaded some kindling and built a fire. The whole place filled with smoke.
Seems starlings had built a nest in the chimney, which had a horizontal run where it exited the cabin wall. On the outside, the elbow that turned the chimney upwards had rusted through, and the birds used the hole to access the pipe. Apparently they didn't mind the creosote and smokey environs.
So I cleaned out the chimney, and being too cheap to buy new chimney pipe, I took some chicken wire and baling wire, and fashioned a screen to keep them out.
A few months later, in the spring, those starlings were out there, ripping the wire off, and in no time had a nest built.
I tried to redo the screen, but they just ripped it open.
So I laid in wait with a shotgun. Only had one or two chances to shoot any though. There was always at least one bird sitting on the roof of the cabin, standing watch. Anytime I was present, the one guarding the chimney nest would make a racket, squawking and strutting back and forth. All the other birds would become wary and stay away until I would leave.
Nuisances!