Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/15/2008

Question
QUESTION: I had some carolina sparrows take up residence in my birdhouse.  They had been sighted coming and going for several weeks when we had a bad storm that tore the back of the house open and I repaired it quickly with duct tape.  It appeared they had vacated, but one day I saw a bird flying in and out bringing out feather down (no other materials) and discarding it into the air, onto the ground.  He did this about 15 times.  I haven't seen them near the house since then.  What's up with the "unfeathering?"

ANSWER: I don't know what Carolina sparrows are but I suspect the birds are simply rebuilding a damaged nest.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Maybe I didn't ask my question correctly. I'm not clear why one of the two birds would come back to "defeather" the nest in the bird house, that is, fly into the birdhouse getting the down feathers from the nest inside  and tossing them into the air.  I could understand if it had come back to clean up and rebuild the nest to reinhabit it; I could maybe also understand if it took the down to a new location, but I haven't seen either bird since the one came back to "defeather" the nest. (P.S. My neighbor said they were carolina sparrows.....maybe not if an ornithologist has never heard of that variety.)

Answer
There is no reason to defeather the nest except to rebuild it but they could have been remodeling it and then gave up before they decided to totally rebuild it.There is no such thing as a Carolina Sparrow - there is a Carolina Wren and a Carolina Chickadee, but no sparrow.