Purple Martin Forum

I think adding some Starling resistant entrance holes would be a good idea. Might have to do that with tunnel adapters or some other custom modification. Most of those are round holes and just asking for a starling to come in. The house sparrows you can trap or an established colony can chase off bu...

Been trying since 2017 and best success was 2020 and 2022. I felt defeated more than once but I stuck to it and had the two males return from 2022 and one paired up right away and the other a week later. Those two pairs called in nine more pairs and 11 of 17 gourds have nests. All the eggs hatched b...

Gratz. It only gets better. I started in 2017 and had a visitor but no pair until a few years later. I just kept at it even during no show years and thought I might never get a pole site in the middle of a bunch of single family homes to work. I had two big adult males return to my pole after 1-2 pa...

Bluebird for sure. If he does pair up and they get eggs(hopefully in a gourd) you can move the gourd along a rope a foot or more each day and when far enough out gourd in a bluebird pole. I have done this past two years and had bluebird babies each year and they didn’t bother martins. Bluebirds do l...

Glad you got a few. It’s a challenging process. Took me like 4 years to get my first pairs in 2020 and then 2021 I had none due to freezing storms. Got 1 pair so far this year but seeing good signs (2-6) birds during the sunny days now. I had a pair in 2020 nest mid June and still make the flight ho...

I have a few hawks in my area but with the birds with nestlings and two pairs of martins they drive them off pretty fast. I stopped feeding genera mixed bird feed and now only give thistle and safflower for finches and cardinals. The more birds eating on the ground seems to pull the hawks in. I did ...

Have one pair I’m expecting to start best building any day. Also have an annoying tree swallow pair that I have chased off when martins aren’t around to. Weather has been a bit up and down here in northern Virginia and it’s slowing things down. I’ve got about 45 days to get more pairs based on my 20...

Update 7/16 Covid and Corona laid 5 eggs in two nests. Three in main and two below it. I consolidated the two below. Marked shell with small dot. 2 eggs hatched. Two babies fledged today by 9am. They did come back down to the pole briefly to perch and one sat on the top of my house preening. I hear ...

By the time you get the package they should have eggs and maybe even a few hatched. Adding them At that point I think is safer. They won’t abandon babies easily I read. It took 2-3 weeks to get mine after ordering. I wouldn’t do it during nest building as they might Get scared away. I would just att...

I had similar issues. I dealt with the HOSP using repeating ground trap and one gourd trap if the HOSP was determined and laid eggs. I would tear their nest but it would be remade the next day. Gourd trap those. Once I handled my HOSP issue in came the bluebirds and tree swallows. I put up three blu...

Did you see nest building already? Have you done any nest checks? what did you see? This is a good sign if the female is doing that. My female is doing that when she is awaiting the male to return so she can grab a drink or bite quickly and then she returns to incubate more. All, that chirping in th...

not much to say about the causes of that since I am new myself and I would assume heat or wing entrapment or a fight with another male or starling. Do you have other nests that you could put those eggs in? I am not sure what everyone's thoughts are on that but if there are any small clutches of eggs...

If you saw them nest building in the morning or evenings then they are on their way. You will see a few green leaves in there just prior to egg laying. Give them a few days of good eating and weather and you will probably see an egg. Nest building can take 4-5 days or two weeks depending on whats pr...

Doug,



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Red

I would agree with the prior posters. The multipurpose pole would be great for your setup. I would get another house to go with the one you got and convert them both from 12 to a 6 holes and make the depth of the compartments bigger. You could add tunnels and SREH plates at a minimum if you have rou...

Have you seen any behaviors like they are there in the mornings and then are gone most of the day and return before sunset? Do you see one sitting on the porch and singing to get the other to fly down and perch? Are they sleeping in the gourd? The one on the right could very well be female and the d...

I assume that having a full rack is harder since males tend to try to control more than one gourd. So, having 20 out of 24 is a great percentage. Putting up another pole with more gourds would seem to be the best way to give more housing and control the percentages. I think it is nice to have a few ...

Looks like the martins are holding their own for now. You are lucky to have so many martin pairs to help defend. I would still take out the male and female house sparrow ASAP. They can cause damage later if they get in a house and hurt babies or eggs. A ground repeating trap will work well or You co...

I feel your pain. I had many of the same. I will say I did go stand by my pole and make sure I had good fly ways. I cut down two trees and trimmed three. I also got the repeating trap for the ground. I caught 8-10 house sparrows already. I only used a gourd trap when I saw a pair of house sparrow in...

Congratulations. I have the same thing with my first pair. They both built nests in the same two gourds. The gourds are identical and one above the other. I read this happens a lot with first time nesters. They get confused. Eventually they will pick a gourd to primarily use. Mine even laid eggs in ...