I tried but the feral cats ate them.
I had a feral yellow female cat that lived under the deck of the house across the street. I used to feed it but she would never come to the dish when I was there, she would always wait in the distance until I went inside.
Whenever I would shoot the English sparrows under my bird feeders, the cat, who would always be hiding in the bushes of my backyard neighbor, would come rushing out and pick up the dead sparrow and take off to eat it. She was my Retriever Cat.
Over the course of two years, she had three litters of three kittens each that eventually would disappear. I don't know whatever happened to them, I often think a coyote may have gotten them even tho I've never seen it but I think I recognized its tracks in the snow in my front yard several times.
As for the female, she just disappeared last year too.
For the record, I've tried several times to trap her and take her to get neutered but she never fell for the trap.
A friend of mine would shoot sparrows any time, any place (except where specifically prohibited by local law). This other guy who was one of his best friends and also a biker had a terrible problem with this, lecturing him about “killing Gd’s innocent creatures.”
People used to eat sparrows.
You know, I was just reading this book “The First World War - A Complete History” by Martin Gilbert and there’s a part about how General Allenby “captured” Jerusalem without firing a shot - the city dignitaries found some English who were out scrounging for food and surrendered to them. Allenby went on to become a sort of holy man in Jerusalem with Jews, Xtians, and moslems.
Apparently he had a pet fighting spider that he named “Hindenburg.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Allenby,_1st_Viscount_Allenby
(this wikipedia article doesn’t mention the spider)