What wild birds fit thru chicken wire?

[plantguy90]

Still having a problem finding really little bird poop in my feeders every day, smaller than a grain of rice. The run is chain link, but covered in 1" chicken wire and the top is covered by 3/4" aviary netting, but still find poop every day. they seem to raid in the super early mornings. Problem is my flock gets repeated infections of cocci, really bad as I have lost way more birds in a year more than I keep, so it causes quite a turnover in the flock. Are there birds that can get thru?

 

[La Mike]

Do ya'll have house wrens there ? They can fit through and carry numerous diseases that can infect your flock.

 

[bryan99705]

Move your feeder inside? Change to a different style feeder?

 

[plantguy90]

House wren? That's a new one, will have to research... I do know we got sparrows. We're in so. california. Thinking about removing the feeder for a while and just feeding them myself, maybe then I can catch a glimpse of one of them thieves and how they are doing it.

 

[aggie9296]

How about smaller wire (hardware cloth) or even plastic netting/fencing over the chicken wire?

We have tons of birds that can fit thru 1 in wire. Wrens, finches, sparrows, chickadees. And they all will eat feed. They just think you have a squirrel proof feeder just for them inside that run!

Also, if the poop is smaller than rice grains, I would think mice.

 

[plantguy90]

Comparing the pics on the web to what I find in the feeder, it could be mice, though its a hanging feeder and I used to block off the chain with a disc as that's what I first suspected, but since there's new poop every day, thought it may be a bird. its not like bird poop that we all know of, since there's nothing white or milky, just hard little grains.

Now I am confused, if its mice, then how are my birds always catching cocci? Every few months someone drops deap from cocci. I do have amprolium now, since sulmet doesnt do diddly.

Mice dont transmit cocci, right?

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
Mice can transmit several diseases, not sure exactly which ones. But, that was my first guess and was going to say maybe mice, but you already had that figured out.

 

[aggie9296]

Cocci can live in the soil, so i would think mice could track it in too. Plus those little buggars can jump, climb, swim and hang upside down if that means a free meal. If the poop shows up overnight, think mice. If poop is only showing up during the daytime, think birds. Hopefully birds, cause mice are a heckuva lot harder to get rid of.

Or just borrow someones game cam and see who's doing it.

 

[animalpro24]

How about some kind of swallow?

 

[animalpro24]

Quote:
didn't think about mice, they could be your little poopers.