Survival Bill

These traps live-catch the sparrows — the wire “jaws” close down around the sparrow’s neck, but the spring is very weak (snap it on your thumb to make sure it is not too hard) and the feathers on the bird cushion the blow. The bird is trapped by the neck and unable to fly solely due to the trap’s small weight. Note that if a cat is around, it will steal both your birds and your traps, while if a heavier bird or a rat is caught it may be able to fly or crawl away with your trap. Staking a trap with a short piece of fishing line can prevent trap loss.

Tools. Note small store-bought springs in middle. Use one spring per trap.

1. The thick blue line sketch is a drawing showing the main “frame” of the trap. The pencil-lead part of the sletch is of the swinging jaw of the trap — the “C-jaw”. Starting with a drawing is a good idea, as you need to make sure that the tongue of the trap (the long extension drawn in blue) will extend past the hinging jaw (outlined in pencil).
2. All three of the main parts of the trap are made from heavy-duty coat hanger wire and are shown cut and ready to asseble. The very light-wire part of the trigger is not shown, but two inches of any light wire will do the trick. The last photo shows how the trigger assembly works.
3. The spring has been put on the “frame” of the trap. You use one spring and split it into two parts, with the middle bit of the straightened spring afixed in the gap as shown. You need to put the spring on before you bend over the ends of the coat hanger frame to hold them fast together.
4. The straight piece of coathanger wire with the little hook on the end is part of the catch. The hook is afixed to the loop at the end of the long tongue of the trap, and then the bar is pulled over the hinged C-jaw, and the end of the catch is then caught on a small light-wire hook afixed to the straightend part of the spring that is in the gap at the center of the trap frame.

The trigger mechanism is show in close up above. Note that the brake bar is barely held by the light wire hook in the middle of the trap. The trap is baited by sliding a little piece of bread over the lightwire hook.

The assembled trap is shown above. This picture shows a a professionally-made trap, and not the poorly made one-off affair show at the very top and below. Give me time, a proper jig to bend the wires,, and 100 practice runs assembling these things, and my crafsmanship is sure to improve!