Purple Martin Forum

I would like to get Uncle Blaines repeater trap but am unsure how to kill the HOSP once in the trap, I normally drown them in my other traps, which is pretty quick. I was told you leave a live decoy in the repeater trap to attract more birds so then how do you kill the birds inside the trap? Any hel...

Is it possible for a mother to throw a dead baby out of the nest? We have some gourds this year and one fell down in a thunderstorm last week. It had several babies so we put it back up but one of the babies was dead on the ground 2 days later. I've seen the mom caring for them so I wondered if she ...

We have had martins for 6-7 years. This year there were about 4-5 martins that arrived mon-tues. and have now disappeared. Has anyone else had this happen? My husband is afraid it's because the neighbors have not cleaned out their houses yet but I thought it may be related to the weather being so co...

Thanks for the welcome! So you are saying that the martins will use the house even if the sparrows have pooped all over inside and out? I didn't think that the martins would like that! We are getting some sparrow traps today! My husband shot one last night with a bb gun but I'd rather kill them more...

I would also like to buy the martin decoys if they really work. Does anyone have any of these?
Thanks!

Thanks for the input! Also, when the sparrows make nests in the martin house we tear them out but they poop everywhere in the house too. Do we just wash the house out with water or should we use a small amount of bleach? If we trap the sparrows how do we do it without trapping the martins? Sorry to ...

Hi, I've been reading many of the posts and find them fascinating. We are trying to get martins for the first time this year and are looking for any help/info. we can get. My neighbor has martins already and we have tried several different things. We were told to leave all the doors open since my ne...