Cow Bird Control

A little bit ago I helped the local Gold and House Finch nesting pairs

There was a hundred or more Cow Birds in the barn yard feeding on some spilled cattle feed

As Cow Birds do not raise their own young
But lay their eggs in other birds nests and their young kill or push the nesting birds eggs and young out of the nest

I decided to reduce the Cow Bird population a bit
I loaded the Remington 1187 , 28" vent rib barrel with a Lite Mod extended choke tube with 5 shells
As I stepped out from behind the shed
The Cow Birds took off in a tight flock at about 30 yards
Well 3 shots later I let my lab fetch as many of the dead and flopping cow birds as he could find

2 3/4-in. Fiocchi Plastic hulls
Claybuster version of the Federal 12 S 4 wad
CCI 209 primer
1 1/4 oz of homemade shot , a mix of #8 and #7
27 gr of Unique powder
I believe the manual says 1300 FPS

Well my lab Buck Shot spent over 20 min fetching
He was dropping them into a 5 gallon bucket I put out for him to drop the birds into
The 5 gallon bucket was over 1/2 full when I told him to stop and come in
But I know a few made it to the arborvitae wind break
So the barn cats will have extra free food , besides the bunch I put in the cat food bowels

I didn't count what was in the bucket before I dumped the remainder next to the woods
Might get a coyote in the snares I have set close to where I dumped the bucket


John

Here in Virginia cow birds and starlings are officially classified as pests and people are encouraged to kill them by any means, including shooting. We just have to be careful to not kill any grackles, as the three species flock together, and grackles are a native, protected bird.

When I was a kid the local hog farmer was plagued with Starlings and cow birds. Shells were expensive but I had a Lee Hand Loader! We would go to the trap range and pick up used plastic wads and put em in my mothers washing machine and reuse them. We would shoot plenty and we gathered em up and pitched the dead birds right into the hog pens. Joe the farmer would laugh as the hogs crunched up the birds. He exclaimed "that's good protein" !!!! We had so much fun!!! Better than sitting on our butts playing video games.

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Originally Posted by Tatume

Here in Virginia cow birds and starlings are officially classified as pests and people are encouraged to kill them by any means, including shooting. We just have to be careful to not kill any grackles, as the three species flock together, and grackles are a native, protected bird.

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Grackles should be taken off the protected list. Just as much pests as the other two, and as aggressive.

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Grackles should be taken off the protected list. Just as much pests as the other two, and as aggressive.

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Cow birds and starlings are non-native invasive species, as are house sparrows (English sparrows). Grackles are native, migratory birds. The common name "grackle" encompasses 11 species nation wide, one of which is already extinct. Under Federal law it is illegal to kill any native, migratory bird except game birds in season. While I don't know the laws of all 50 states, I would be very surprised to find that any state allows the killing of native birds, except for hunting as prescribed by law, or in special circumstances such as airport safety.

Destroying native species often has unintended and unforeseeable consequences. When I was a child the killing of vultures was encouraged because one species (the black vulture) would attack calves. Also they were considered ugly. When fields and roadsides accumulated unwanted dead animals it was discovered that vultures play an important role in nature, a role that benefits people. Fortunately this was realized before it was too late.

In the 19th century passenger pigeons were hunted to extinction. They were a tasty food source, and would be a desirable game bird today if not for short-sighted exploitation. In the time that Audubon walked the country he was over-flown by a large flock. He said that as he walked for several days on his way to St. Louis that the ground looked like it had a light dusting of snow, so many birds had passed overhead.

I could go on.

Back when I was a kid the electric company would put a bounty on red headed woodpeckers. The woodpeckers would turn the telephone poles into Swiss cheese and store acorns in them. If I remember right, they were paying 50 cents for each one brought in. There was a kid named Mike that lived down the block, and he had quite an enterprise going. He'd follow the phone poles and trees along the railroad tracks with a lever action 22, and over a day or two he'd fill a garbage bag with dead woodpeckers.

Now, he could have turned those in at any of the electric companies field offices, but instead he'd go to their business office in town. The field offices had linemen, equipment operators, and other hard working dudes there, but the business office was mostly secretaries. He'd walk in and plop a bag of dead woodpeckers on a secretaries desk, and ask for the bounty. The secretary would be horribly grossed out, and call for the nearest male co-worker to assist in paying this lad his bounty. Once he had cash in hand, Mike would step outside and wait. Within moments, that male co-worker would exit the back of the building and toss that bag of dead woodpeckers into the dumpster. As soon as the coast was clear, Mike would fish that bag back out of the dumpster, then he would turn that same bag in for the bounty at one of the field offices. I think Mike could have made a good career as a used car salesman.

When I was in high school the cow birds roosted in the trees over and around the pig pen so would sneak out early and empty a shotgun in the roosts. They fell in the pen. It sure reduced cleanup time.

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Originally Posted by 405grain

Back when I was a kid the electric company would put a bounty on red headed woodpeckers. The woodpeckers would turn the telephone poles into Swiss cheese and store acorns in them. If I remember right, they were paying 50 cents for each one brought in. There was a kid named Mike that lived down the block, and he had quite an enterprise going. He'd follow the phone poles and trees along the railroad tracks with a lever action 22, and over a day or two he'd fill a garbage bag with dead woodpeckers.

Now, he could have turned those in at any of the electric companies field offices, but instead he'd go to their business office in town. The field offices had linemen, equipment operators, and other hard working dudes there, but the business office was mostly secretaries. He'd walk in and plop a bag of dead woodpeckers on a secretaries desk, and ask for the bounty. The secretary would be horribly grossed out, and call for the nearest male co-worker to assist in paying this lad his bounty. Once he had cash in hand, Mike would step outside and wait. Within moments, that male co-worker would exit the back of the building and toss that bag of dead woodpeckers into the dumpster. As soon as the coast was clear, Mike would fish that bag back out of the dumpster, then he would turn that same bag in for the bounty at one of the field offices. I think Mike could have made a good career as a used car salesman.

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That was funny!
JW

Crows are on that list of migratory birds also, the murmurous black bastages. I shoot the suckers when they get out of hand.

Virginia hunting regulations:

Crow Season Dates

August 19 through March 15: on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

September 1 through March 9: on National Forest Lands and Department lands on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays only.

Crows are a federally regulated migratory species; however, no HIP registration is required and hunters may use unplugged shotguns to hunt them. Electronic calls may be used on private and public lands. Written permission of the landowner is not required to hunt crows with electronic calls, except when hunting on posted property.

I grew up calling starlings grackles. because my mother didn't know the difference. Not terribly bright, my mother. Dad married her for her "other virtues" I'm now 100% sure.

Many years later i had endless fun picking cowbirds off the birdfeeder with an old Hopkins & Allen single shot, using Colibri ammo, sitting at the dining room table, shooting thru an open window.

Colibri and Super Colibri is unbeatable for out of the window pest control.

I didn't know crow were migratory, seem to be here year-round, they evidently didn't get the memo.

Doves are here all year, but doves are migratory. Some come here and others leave, and later the ones that left return, and the ones that came here leave.
Ospreys are here in the summer, and spend the winters in Brazil. They are also migratory.
Migratory does not mean you can't see them all year. The migration pattern determines that.

Brown headed cow birds are native to the US.

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Originally Posted by woody1

Brown headed cow birds are native to the US.

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I stand corrected. Just now I read this journal article "Management of the brown-headed cowbird: Implications for endangered species and agricultural damage mitigation" and learned that cowbirds are managed as pests because of the damage they do, despite their being native birds. Thank you for bringing this fact to my attention.

I discriminate on the basis of gender and just shoot the female cowbirds.

Years ago there was a hog lot right across the road from our farm where they fed the hogs in open troughs. Also this was in a treed area with trees that various species of black birds liked for roosting. Well, it all came together and resulted in uncoutable nubers of grackles, starlings and cowbirds roosting there. After a year or two they began using it year round. As a shotgunner I was thrilled. I used to carry shells in the old brown paper grocery sacks and stand in the road right at the end of a fencerow where one of the flight paths was located. When the birds would appear over the last big oak I would blast them. They were spread out enough that you could pick an individual bird most shots and that's what I did. A typical evening would give me about 190 aimed shots. This went on for years. The neighbors were always asking how much I spent on shells. Well, I was a young single Engineer who loaded my own, bought Red Dot in the 8lb cans and was very willing to compromise other expenses to shoot so much. There is something about shooting and seeing a bird fold up in flight that is addicting. After years of this fun, the farmer who owned the hog lot decided to try a shoot in the lot itself after dark to run the birds out once and for all. Since he was going to do it, I volunteered to participate. I took and shot 450 shells that night. We waited until well after dark so the birds wouldn't be able to leave once the shooting started. There were 3 other shooters but they didn't fire as many shellls as I did even if you totaled all their shots. I think they shot something like 200 or maybe 250 shells. Anyhow, it was very chaotic. My Big dog was with me and he was chasing hogs, hogs were chasing him, hogs were eating falling birds. Of course the birds were going crazy. The sound of wings was deafening and I was simply shooting upward toward the noise. We shot for over an hour and quit when all the shells were gone. The next morning there were wounded birds scattered hundreds of yards away. I know the coons, coyotes, skunks, possums and whatever else eats birds thought they had hit the jackpot with all that free feed around. The next night the old roost was empty. I've often thought that if I hadn't participated with such enthusiasm the roost might not have been ruined and my nightly wing shooting might have continued. I'll never know. But when that roost was active, it was way better than the best dove shoot I've ever been on.

Don't waste ammo on male cowbirds! Take out the females!

I agree take out the females
But with a shotgun at 30+ yards
I tend to just work on killing them ALL LOL

John