*Bird and Squirrel Trapping *
By: Duckman
7 September 2010

Some years ago as part of a directed study in naturalism I took part in a bird trapping . The purpose of this trapping was to band and document the age sex and health of the birds caught and then released. Several different species were caught including morning doves , wood peckers, blue jays and others. The birds were fed a special blend of seed every morning at four different feeding stations . Every station got one cup of millet seed, one cup of black un salted sunflower seed , and one cup of thistle seed. I usually mixed the seed in a bucket and scooped it onto plat forms that the birds and quite a few squirrels would feed from .

The woman in charge at the nature center I was working with was licensed by the state to do this sort of trapping and banding so I would not recommend it as a hobby unless you were as well. However, in a SHTF scenario, depending on weather or not bird flu is a problem in you’re AO, this method could be used as a food source. Here are the steps to set up a bird trapping .

  1. Select areas away from the house unless you want droppings caked on your place of residence.
  2. Start a pattern of when you put the feed out. The animals will adapt to it. Just give it a few days .
  3. When you are ready , put your traps in place .

Now the park I worked with used a certain kind of bird trap that the birds could get in and out of when the trap wasn’t set so the birds would get used to seeing the traps and not think any thing of them when they were set until they were caught . It however, has been my experience, when live trapping animals, birds will get into a squirrel trap just fine . The local hard ware store brand of bird seed will also work just as well as the mixture stated above. . Just remember to give the animals a couple weeks to get used to seeing food at your feeder stations. Eventually you will see them there every day. This can be used for survival trapping or just attracting the birds for watching .
Duckman


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