I was invited by a local farmer to shoot pest birds plaguing her goat operation. I only recorded a handful of shots because I had work to do. In total, over 100 birds were killed. Because the gun did such a good job at surgically removing the pests, without upsetting the livestock, I was given an open invitation to return. :)

European house sparrows are an outright plague on some farms. If left unchecked, their numbers swell out of control. They eat a lot of the livestock feed. But, what is worse is that they defecate in that feed. In this way, they can spread crippling disease very quickly to the animals.

Furthermore, these birds are quite aggressive and disrupt the nesting of tree cavitynesting birds, such as Purple Martin, Eastern Bluebird, Carolina wren, and a variety of woodpeckers.

We not only shoot sparrows and starlings, we remove their nests and habitat (brush) as much as possible. Some folks think it doesn't make a difference. I can tell you that they are not trying hard enough. If you make life tough on these birds, they will find alternative areas to congregate.

Do a Google search on "House Sparrow" and you will find much information about the damage they cause. One thing I'm sure of is that if these birds were ugly like a rat, fewer people would be so quick to chastise me for blasting them.

As of January 2011, Youtube has declare this video to require age approval to watch it.