These are the little Thompson-Okanagan birds eating all your grass seed

Every spring, massive flocks of white-crowned sparrows swoop into gardens in the Thompson-Okanagan to swipe grass seed and newly planted vegetables on their long migration north, creating a challenge for gardeners.

“I don’t think people understand, it’s not just ten birds in your backyard, it’s more like hundreds that all come in at the same time,” said long-time Kamloops gardener Darlene Doricic. “I’ll look out my kitchen window and see them hanging out, waiting for me to put grass seed down.”

Doricic puts down grass seed every year because her dogs rip up the lawn, but she has learned to wait until after the white-crowned sparrow migration has passed through.

“I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried hanging sparkly things in the backyard to scare them away and putting the sprinkler on but it doesn’t matter, they’ll literally come in and eat every seed you put down,” she said.

White-crowned sparrows stop at backyards in waves for roughly four weeks to rest and refuel on their long journey from southern California and Mexico to breeding grounds in the Arctic.

Also called zebras, after the distinctive white and black stripes on their heads, these native songbirds will hop along the ground, scratch under shrubs and sing while snacking on gardens.

Kurtis Huston is a bird expert and owner at Wild Birds Unlimited in Kamloops. He gets reports from his customers when the first of these native songbirds begin to arrive, and advises holding off on seeding and planting in backyards until the third week of April or the beginning of May to be safe.

“These birds are highly efficient at finding food, travel long distances and rely strongly on our region for refuelling on their journey to the Arctic,” he said, adding that providing the birds with high quality bird seed and water sources is a great way to help them.

While Doricic waits for the birds to move on before seeding her lawn, she said others who have already seeded theirs often put netting over it.

“I applaud gardeners that put down netting, I’m not that ambitious,” she said. “Some are already putting winter veggies like peas in the garden so if you’ve done that, you’ll have to put netting down over it too.”