Several people have suggested that I convert my martin holes from the crescent to a round hole. How do I do that. IF I cut a round hole at the top half of the crescent, it will make a obtuse ugly half flat and round top hole. In my S a K there are 2 inch hole impressions in the plastic above the crescent holes. Should I cut those out and cover the crescent holes.
How about on my gourds which have cresent holes.How do I go about making these holes round?
By the way, I'm still trying to attract birds. Those in the pictures are decoys
Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
I really don't think the openings are the problem. I'm a first time landlord and offered 6 gourds with crescent shaped openings. I've had lots of visitors and was starting to think the same as you--- but today they are diving right into the gourds like they've been doing it for years. I think you just need to be patient.
Mine would drop by, stick their heads inside and then hop to the next gourd. Then they'd leave. But I think it's just their way of making sure the inside is safe.
One thing I did was remove the decoys. When I had decoys out, the birds would come by but not land. When I take the decoys off, they land. Try that as an experiment.
You could cover up one or two crescents, and remove the part covering the round holes (cut out the round hole at the impressions). That would give you a couple round holes. I surely would not do that to all of the house, leave most of them as they are.
If you then do get martins, you can remove the cover from the crescents, and open them, and close the two round holes.
I don't think that the sreh is the problem, but its something to try just to satisfy yourself...
You do have a very nice looking house, with gourds under it. That sounds ideal to me.
I have been to Plant City, Florida a few times and I remember it as the Strawberry Capital of the World! When I was going through that area, I did not see many martin colonies; but I only had a limited view from the highway. I know there are many lakes in central Florida and this should be a good environment for martins.
I don't know what your starling competition issues are and most people on this Forum would not either unless they live in the Plant City area. The few colonies I saw were all in round hole houses, primarily aluminum Trios and Heaths. Have you seen starlings landing on your housing and trying to enter? Do you see starlings feeding on the ground in your area? Starlings are grazers and you often see them hunting for invertebrates on closely mowed lawns.
Have you seen active martin colonies located near your site? If so, then that is a good sign that you may be able to attract martins more easily.
We use all round holes in our two personal martin colonies and the martins are flourishing. Right now, we have about 375 pairs of martins in residence and no starlings. So there is nothing wrong with using round holes if you don't have starlings or you can control them. You could open up the round holes and see what happens relative to martin activity. Then if the martins establish territory and you are concerned about starlings, you could always change back to the crescents. Once martins are bonded to a house/gourd rack, they will usually adjust to changes in entrance holes.
What I want to know is how to open the crescent holes to make them round. Do I drill out the top and make it a key hole appearance? The punch out holes a the top of the doors are about four or five inches from the porch. I have read where the hole shouldn't be any higher than a half inch from the porch floor.
Hey Talk Host, I'd leave the cresent holes, I have the same exact setup as yours and this is my first year, I have 30+ martins and 5 nesting pairs, The cresent hole has saved my martins from Starling attacks. I did lose one male martin, he was literlly drug out of the house and killed, so keep the setup you have, its safer for the Martins in the long run. IMHO.
chris
PS My avatar shows one of my nesting pairs, I have several pictures and videos on this fourm you can see my setup.
PMCA Member since 2010
Super System 24, All Troyer W/Conley 2 entrances.
Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
What I want to know is how to open the crescent holes to make them round. Do I drill out the top and make it a key hole appearance? The punch out holes a the top of the doors are about four or five inches from the porch. I have read where the hole shouldn't be any higher than a half inch from the porch floor.
JLK
You don't want the key hole look. If you cut out the round hole from the imprint you have- you should cover up the crescent hole. You might need to rearrange the openings so the round hole is on the lower side and the crescent (plugged up/covered) is on top.
Looking closer (150% view) those gourds look to be Clinger entrances and not crescents. The openings on the house are crescents.
Clingers are less restrictive and easier for a martin to get into than are crescents, but I know several local sites that have martins using that exact same house.
Here's our school site earlier today with S&K gourds that DO have crescents. Many of these martins pictured are SY birds, which almost certainly fledged from round-hole sites last year, they learned the crescents without problem, Clingers would be even easier.
So I suspect the openings aren't the problem. Ours have round holes plugged above the crescent. If you must put in round holes, it looks like you will need to cut yours. As stated, you should block the Clinger entrance on the openings you convert.
Is this house renovated to deeper compartments? I conclude as I see 6 crescents on one side, it's all 6 x 6 units for a total of 12?
It's generally recommended to convert 6 x 6 units to 6 by 12 by opening up the interior walls...so you end up with 6 compartments -- achieving quality units rather than quantity. (See the home page for Trio conversions.) Martins fledge more young in deeper units as the nest is placed back further from the entrance, away from the reach of owls, blowing rain, and babies getting pushed out and and falling to the ground.
Something I suspect...is that martins are less likely to enter crescents at an unestablished site if they peer in an see the back wall of a 6 x 6 unit. They may be more likely to enter if they can see a hole in the back wall leading further back, or the wall removed. But again, this is theory of mine.
If you have not modified, I suggest you do. You could keep one or two round hole compartments on 6 x 6 units. Starlings are less likely to bother 6 by 6 units even with a round hole, but if there are starlings snooping, they love the deep compartments and so SREH (crescent) would be very important on those compartments. But a role hole on a 6 x 6 compartment sometimes does allow a prospective male martin to hop in and bond with the house, and when he brings a female, she may well choose a deeper unit with a SREH opening. This is how I founded the colonies at Forest Park in St. Louis, however, I've since gained much more confidence about starting colonies from all SREH.
I also want to again suggest checking the accuracy of the house crescents. A crescent must be exactly 1 3/16 inches tall to admit martins and restrict starlings, and ideally it should be no more than one-fourth inch off the floor, but some manufactured houses have them at different heights. It will still admit martins set higher, but is less restrictive to starlings.
I think the gourds are fine -- I'd keep SREH there if there are any starlings at all in your area.
You are so right about the compartments needing to be six by twelve inch.it even says it in pmca book.six by six compartments need to be modified.I had this house got nothing untill I did that.if you have know luck now it won't hurt to try.and they should sell parts to switch back and fourth from round and sreh.good luck
Martin Colony History: Erected 1st house in 1997. Birds were checking it out before Mike got down from the ladder. Six cavities had a little colony 1st year. Grown to 88 cavities all gourds with near 100% occupancy. Most important factor for success is rain = bugs.
Y'all keep talking about the SREH's - trust me, it doesn't matter what kind of SREH you've got. If you don't get that housing moved away from that fence you're not gonna have any Purple Martins nesting in that housing...
Martin Colony History: I moved to South Florida, from Delaware, in August of 2015.
I care for a 6 condo Sunset House as well as two Deluxe Gourd Racks, with 24 Chirpynest/Excluder gourds, along a canal in Pompano Beach, Florida.
At Quiet Waters Park, nearby in Deerfield Beach, I care for a Deluxe Gourd Rack with 12 TVG's. I also care for a Deluxe Gourd rack with 12 Excluder gourds with Modified Excluder entrances. I am substituting 6 Chirpynest boxes for 6 of the Conley II entranced gourds in 2026.
At another local park, Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, I care for a Trendsetter 12, 5 gourds rack with 60 Excluder gourds with Modified Excluder Entrances and 1 Deluxe Gourd Rack with 12 Troyer Vertical Gourds with Starling Stoppers over the Conley II's to keep out smaller starlings.
John Miller is RIGHT ON TARGET. Enlarge the compartments and leave the crescents. Make sure the crescents are the correct size. I too think the problem is the small compartment. A predator can just reach in and grab the eggs or young or even the nesting adult. You will only have half as many condos but even four is plenty to attract martins. They love having that back room in which to safely nest.
Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
Did you enlarge the crescent openings? Just make sure they aren't enlarges enough or it will defeat the purpose of preventing starlings from getting in.
Glad you enlarged the compartments to 6x12, they'll love that.
The experts say that 2 1/8 inches is the maximum. So I used a 2 1/8 inch hole saw. I really haven't seen many starlings around here. They are probably around, but I haven't seen them.
Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
Talk Host, I as some other's here don't think the SREH"S are the problem.
I had 84 pair last season all using these opening's.
My neighbor has had all round hole's and has done the same as you. Enlarging what SREH's he had because he did not think they could get in.
He had around 40 pr. last year.
Now that the Martin's are here, so are the starling's. He can't be home enough to really control them. So he is now finally going to order more SREH's. The starling's have caused his colony to decline over the past couple of year's.
If you don't have Starling's, round hole's are fine. But if it's like here, when the Martin's come so do the starling's
Just starting out as you are, i can relate with your anxity. Martin's aren't easy to attract espesially in some area's where there number's are low.
What i do know is, if a Martin find's your site and like's your housing. He will get in!
If you think there is a problem with the SREH"S you should contact the MFG. . I'm sure they can advise you better on their product and direct you accordingly. Good luck!
