Best large sparrow trap--suggestions

[bbbdco]

I live in South Dakota. My birds usually arrive on April 24 each year. I'm looking for advice on sparrow traps. Currently, I have 3 of the Van Ert sparrow traps set up in 3 "blue bird" houses. And I catch sparrows year round. But I'd like to invest in a larger cage style trap, where I can catch multiple sparrows at a time. Do you have any suggestions as to which traps work the best, regardless of price? Every year, sparrows end up destroying several of my Purple Martin nests and eggs. Last year I had several nests with 6 or 7 eggs, and the next time I checked, all the eggs were gone or destroyed. So I'm doing my best to get ahead of the game. Thanks for your advice.

[Jeffc]

There are multiple repeating traps. Check out Uncle Blaines Sparrow trap. I have two of them and they work well.

[flyin-lowe]

If you have room for a large trap and want to deal with destroying the sparrows and starlings and releasing the native birds, get a V Trap from Troyers. I think they have just the plans available to build your own. It is a pretty large trap. I spoke with Andy years ago about the trap as I was planning to build a scaled down model. Andy said they tested many shapes and sizes and the size he currently sells was the best size. It is large enough the birds likely don't feel like they are getting into a confined space, but then are not able to get out. If you ever get or have seen his catalogue he keeps stats of how many HOSP and starlings he catches, and his highest numbers were in the thousands for a year.

[Thomas Maddox]

Good grief! That is a HOSP mansion. We need one of those in every Walmart parking lot!