Purple Martin Forum

Brent, sorry to hear about the hawk trouble. I started the year with a persistent Cooper’s hawk that I know took at least one bird but saw him hanging around every day hunting my birds. A few weeks ago I spent a little time making a “hawk guard” for the Trendsetter 16 house that I have. Since I’ve p...

Haha. LOL!!! They do need classes!! I actually did maintain egg orientation best I could when I made the nest and placed those eggs back inside. I’m a little concerned those eggs rolled around on the flat bottom for a few days and the bumps could have been bad. Also thinking if the SY female tried t...

Thanks…I will give that a try!

During a nest check today I found 5 eggs in a compartment with not much of a nest. Thoughts on whether or not the eggs will hatch successfully? Seems like they will roll around and be difficult for the female to incubate. Picture attached.

I did a nest check today and found a dead young martin, maybe 9 days old. I removed it from the compartment and it still had a dragonfly partially coming out of its mouth. It appeared to have choked to death. Not sure there is anything that can be done here but curious if others have seen this happe...

Last year I had a puzzling incident. I’ll describe it… I had an SY pair have 1 baby and 3 eggs go missing. I had done a nest check and had 1 very new baby and 3 eggs. 5 days later all eggs and the baby were missing. I don’t think it was a snake. No other signs of predation. I also had some other egg...

Here’s a picture of the finished gourds under the trendsetter. Dave, I followed your instructions and reinforced the floor with 3”x6” by 3/8” thick waterproof vinyl pieces and it looks like it should last many seasons! First martin of the season arrived yesterday and he’s checked out every gourd alr...

Brent, that’s exactly what I’m thinking as well. Looks like many of the arrivals this year are later than last year and I am assuming the birds that arrived early last year (before the extreme cold) perished. I think the birds arriving now may adjust to arrive earlier in future years, I read a post ...

Thanks again for the tips. I’ve heard gourds are preferred at most colonies that offer both housing types and have a high % occupancy rate. This will be my 3rd year at this site and went from 1 to 3 pairs the first two years. I have another 12 compartment quad-pod house without gourds underneath. So...

Dave, thanks for the tip. That makes sense to reinforce the bottom of the house. Out of curiosity, have you noticed any housing preferences on gourds vs the trendsetter? Do the gourds fill up first?

I’m looking to add 4 gourds under my trendsetter 16. Has anyone done this before? Current plan is to purchase universal gourd hanging arms and just attach to bottom of house. Appreciate any insight or experience with this.

Passing along my experience…I have a trendsetter and started the year with round holes, quickly ordered SREH holes after having starling issues then later added the wing entrapment preventers and installed on the inside of the SREHs. Only had one pair nest in the trendsetter but they didn’t seem to ...

Thank you all for the advice. I’ll take it. Would be difficult for me to plug the hole at night time but that’s a good thought too.If the martin chick fledges first those sparrows better watch out!

I have a new colony and had three pairs this year, two have fledged their young and the last pair has a only a single chick about 20 days old. I’ve been able to keep sparrows to a minimum through trapping but have one sparrow nest with babies about to fledge. I don’t want that. I don’t have a good s...

I had 2-3 pair of inexperienced sub adults this year that were unsuccessful due to their own inexperience or other sub adult males causing havoc. 2 SY pairs had nests, laid eggs but eggs ended up scattered and nothing hatched. No predator issues that I’m aware of. They seem to be around quite a bit ...

Thanks Dave. I added some pine straw but I was late in doing so, well after many birds had started laying. In the future, should I add pine straw ahead of arrival as I think that would prevent the issue I had. I thought the pine straw was just to help “attract” but I think it also would help SY’s ha...

Dave, that’s interesting and explains quite a bit of the weirdness I’ve seen this year while checking nests. I’ve see a total of 26 eggs and I may fledge 13 young if the remainder goes well. Only one baby died and the others were eggs removed from nests or scattered around in the compartment and the...

Interesting info/theory on the SY males potentially being the culprits behind the missing eggs and babies. That would be a potential consistent theory with my missing baby and 4 eggs. Most of my birds are SY’s this year as last year was my first year at this location and I only had 1 pair plus one e...

I had a similar experience this year. I had an SY female “ride down” during a nest check and I could see her, 1 baby and 4 unhatched eggs through the SREH during that nest check. I never opened the compartment. At the next nest check the baby and the other 4 eggs were gone. Still scratching my head ...

On a 6/13 nest check on the Quad Pod house I had a mother (SY female) ride down and stay in the compartment. First time for me to see this. I never opened it but could see her through the SREH. There was one baby, just hatched, and 4 unhatched eggs. The nest was extremely thinly made and the eggs we...