Bird seed, bread, trash bags on poles and bird traps have all failed to kick out the unwanted guests at Broward Dining Hall.
Three house sparrows have taken up residence at the dining hall, perching on the metal ceiling rafters, chirping and sometimes flitting down to snatch crumbs of pizza crust and other goodies.
"It's kind of gross if you think about it," said Brent Moser, a civil engineering major who was eating at the center on Tuesday. "But it's also kinda neat."
About three weeks ago, Bill Hess, director of Gator Dining, which runs Broward Dining Hall, became aware of the sparrow in the building, he said.
Over Spring Break, two more sparrows snuck in while the doors were open in the hopes that the first would fly out, he said.
From the sparrow's perspective, the dining hall is a near perfect habitat.
House sparrows can't survive in the wilds of North America. Instead, they live off human establishments such as McDonald's and Home Depot, according to Tom Webber, a collections manager of birds at the Florida Natural History Museum.
"It's a really adaptable bird as long as it's in the company of people," Webber said.
But Hess isn't concerned with where they came from; he just wants them gone.
He spent Spring Break trying to remove them by every method he could come up with, he said.
Using seed and bread to entice the sparrows to the door, trying to corral them with trash bags taped to poles and setting cage traps have all proved futile.
Hess consulted the window installation company to see if glass could be removed temporarily from higher spots in the building to let the sparrows out, but the venture would cost too much, he said.
Hess said that he has to weigh the time pressure with the birds' lives. He doesn't want to kill them, but he is running out of options.
About two weeks ago a complaint was filed about the first sparrow, said Anthony Dennis, the environmental health director of the Alachua County Health Department.
An inspector visited, saw that there was a bird in the building and issued a citation. Multiple citations on the same issue can result in serious consequences.
The Alachua County Health Department plans to do a follow-up visit within the next couple of days.
"If we see a sanitary nuisance issue then we'll close the kitchen," he said. "They know that."
