Pine Straw...

[DornCounty]

Do sparrows use it for nest building?

[John Miller]

I've never seen them carry it into a compartment or gourd; however, if you have put in a pre-nest pine needle base, they may incorporate it into their nest. Sometimes if I'm pulling sprrow nests, I might not leave the pine needles, as it makes it easier for them to rebuild quickly, although they rebuild so quickly, it may not matter. But going off track, I sometimes try a sparrow control technique suggested by Bernie Nikolai of Edmonton (he's still in hibernation). When you find a sparrow nest with eggs, one can smash the eggs on a bare floor (so no pine needles) and it may cause them to abandon, or more likely, in my observations to cause them to sulk for a time before staring to rebuild and give martins a shot at claiming the cavity. Sparrows often will lay eggs, even if you are pulling their nests...the female apparently has them inside her and she will lay in a scant nest that the pair builds in an hour. John M

[TerryG]

Those flying carp will build with just about anything you can imagine, paper, cig. butts, feathers, pieces of cloth, and the usual grass, weeds, straw and as John said, they will use existing pine straw..... good shooting and good luck with your birds.

[shiner]

I keep a raised platform full of pine straw for the martins during nest building. I have never seen a HOSP use it. They would rather use other materials like cigarette butts, yarn, feathers and well you get what I'm saying. As far as smashing their eggs inside the compartments, I would be careful with that. I have read that the sparrows will go on a rampage and take it out on the martins. I would just remove the eggs with the nest.