What could be killing our young sparrows..??????

For years now..this time of year..I find many young sparrows...laying dead in our yard. They are flying and out of the nest..but still young..Seems like each is killed..by a deep pecked top of their heads. Hard enough to show the brains.. Nothing else is done . But they die..Not eaten. This morning there were three laying dead. Thanks ahead for any answers.

smiles..Diana

Most likely Common Grackle's are the culprit.

what kind of sparrows are they.

I agree what kind of sparrows are they? The only behavior I've seen similar to this was from house sparrows. They would attack the victim and leave a small round hole in the head about a 1/4" round. Other cavitiy nesters usually are the victims, but I've seen them attack other House sparrows too. I noticed when their numbers get high they are more likely to adopt a mob mentality and act out. I watched 4 sparrows over the weekend harrass a downy wp on a tree, for some unknown reason. The only thing unusual was they were part of a larger group 20-30 House sparrows, I haven't seen a group of sparrows that big since last year. Its odd, because I've seen them repeatedly peck a victim in the same spot on the head, long after they have passed, almost like an obsessive behavoir.

Been a rough week for birds at my house. I saw a crow grab a red wing blackbird nestling. I also saw an adult Cooper's Hawk land and checkout 2 Robins nests (empty) in the yard. So they obivously know they hold food. It just went tree to tree looking into the nests in the area. I was surpised to see a female robin sitting on eggs about 2 days later in one of the nests

the young sparrows..are the common house sparrow..no nest to be seen..lots of the Grackels around though.

thanks smiles..Diana..

Ditto to Chris, likely infanticide by other jealous House Sparrows. It happens more where population densities are high, acting as a natural population control.

Resin

it was probably an old male house sparrows that killed those other sparrows. not all house sparrows nest in boxes. they will nest under your porch. they nest in shrubs, bushes and gutters on your house or garage.