Purple Martin Forum

Over the years of monitoring martin nests it has become evident that some birds are very particular when it comes to housekeeping, while others have more important things that occupy their thinking than nest appearance. Most birds will arrange nest materials in an orderly manner within a pocket in w...

The discussion drove me to look back at my notes for the past few years. I also haven't found mud dams in any gourds (there are 28), but have seen them in my wooden 6x11" nest boxes. The number of nests with dams changes yearly in the wooden houses. In 2023 there were 4/31 nests with dams, 3/33...

martin colony 2022.jpg I put the fledgling martin on the feeding platform, 6 ft above the ground and he sat there for a while. I replaced him/her twice over about 3-4 hours, and while I was getting my step stool to help put him in a nest cavity, a hawk/falcon grabbed him. I paused to water the gard...

It was a very dry early season here in southwestern Ontario on the north shore of Lake Erie, but very wet and hot in June and July with intense, persistent rainfall. Nestling mortalities, which were around 42/225 or 19%, began showing up during nest checks the first week of July, in parallel with ho...

Hi Tom, This is about venting and wet nests. Canada is normally cool, but last summer here on the north shore of Lake Erie (roughly 50 miles north of Erie PA) it got hot, humid and really wet in mid-June/early July. I swapped out nesting material for pine straw, but was probably a week late doing it...