Tomahawk Double Door Rigid Live Bird Trap

We had a problem with a flock of sparrows that had totally taken over our bird feeders. I ordered this trap, and while waiting for it to arrive conditioned the birds to expect a pile of millet and other small seeds on the patio, just underneath the bird feeders. When the trap got here, I took the feeders down, and put the trap on top of the seeds on the patio. I had the seeds arranged in a little pile, in the space beneath and between the two narrowed down entrance ports. The first day I caught four sparrows! In the days that followed I would typically find at least two, sometimes more, birds contained when I first checked the trap in the morning. In a two week period I caught and disposed of at least 18-20 sparrows. Moreover, I did not catch a single type of bird other than a sparrow: the doves would poke around and get the occasional loose seed from the entrance port area, but not get caught in it. The redbirds would sit on top of the trap and look at the seeds, but not try to get into the trap. The only very minor issue I had with it is that the wires in the end of one entrance port (where the wires narrow down to a sort of cone), seemed to be bent in a bit more than the ones than the other end. This made the resulting "hole" the birds would go through appear too small. So, I used a pair of pliers and carefully bent the wires out just a tiny bit, so that the diameter of that hole was the same as that of the other entrance port. I guess I did it correctly, because the birds went in both ends.

While these traps are steeply priced (the only reason I didn't give 5 stars) for what is probably $2 worth of cleverly arranged wire, I ended up purchasing three of them for a small residential back yard to cull a recently exploded House Sparrow population because the first one worked so well. During a 30-day period I trapped and eliminated 75 House Sparrows and released a Bewick's Wren (the same silly bird three times), and one Northern Cardinal, unharmed. The native birds are already returning to the yard in greater numbers. I painted them (mine are now dark green) as was suggested by some reviewers, but only after they had been deployed a couple weeks. I discovered the traps are effected both painted and unpainted. I can't say that I noticed painting them increased their effectiveness dramatically, but I can see all three from my window and they are certainly easier on the eyes once painted and I recommend doing so. If you paint them right out of the box you won't have to scrub them up before painting like I did :)

resting for the winter

My son was able to “relocate” almost 350 invasive house sparrows last summer using a similarly sized trap. The only significant difference in the design is that the other one used a single “cone” style funnel on the top of the trap rather than the two “rectangular pyramid-ish” funnels on either end that this one has. This trap allows the sparrow to get out once caught, but traps other species (finches) that we don’t want to catch. We tried different locations in our yard and tried adjusting the size/shape of the entry ports but the sparrows still didn’t stay trapped. It truly has been a complete waste of $100.

Ever since the group of common House Sparrows chose my property as their place my song birds have left. Every porch is covered in poo year round as they don't migrate. Finally I had to try something to get rid of these pesty bully birds! The trap is very simple. No assembly required. Baiting it properly is important! Simply put seeds under the trap. I let my other feeders go empty so this is the only available food. It will catch other small species too but easy enough to free them unharmed. The Sparrows however get transferred into an old birdcage I have sitting a few feet away until later in the day when I drive the captured birds of the day a few miles down the road in front of barns with livestock for their new home where there's food & shelter. I'm catching about 4-6 a day. I do check the trap multiple x as I've seen some figure out the escape route if left too long. They are pretty tiny so 4 can be held in 1 hand held against my chest for a car window release when I slow down near farms. At this rate I should be rid of them in a couple of weeks before they lay eggs. Yay!