Do young PM kill more immature PM?
I had one pair that was way ahead of the others with there fledged young. I see the new fledging exploring all the cavities. I found 2 dead young in one nest pecked to death. I have not seen any HS and the holes are Starling resistant. Did the new fledged birds do this?
John
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Mary Dawnsong
- Posts: 1685
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 8:17 pm
- Location: Michigan, Livingston County
I have never noticed problems with fledgling aggression, but then I've never been aware of problems with SY males in my colony.
10 years ago PMCA installed one of the earliest martin nestcams and some of the still shots from that project are on their website:
http://purplemartin.org/main/gourdcam.html
The second shot for 6/19/2001 depicts SY male aggression on nestlings:
http://purplemartin.org/main/gourdcam_june2001.html
10 years ago PMCA installed one of the earliest martin nestcams and some of the still shots from that project are on their website:
http://purplemartin.org/main/gourdcam.html
The second shot for 6/19/2001 depicts SY male aggression on nestlings:
http://purplemartin.org/main/gourdcam_june2001.html
Click here to see my colony
"In Michigan every martin matters"
"In Michigan every martin matters"
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Louise Chambers
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6208
- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:07 pm
- Location: Corpus Christi, TX
SY males can be very aggressive towards nestlings at times. On our nest cams here in Corpus Christi, it seems like we watch several attacks at year - the intruder SY male will bite the nestlings and generally thrash them around, but I have never seen them peck them. Some of the SY intruders go through the actions of copulating with nestlings. The nestlings hunker down and wait for the bad guy to leave them alone.
At their worst, SY raiders throw out small nestlings and eggs. Fortunately the parents usually renest.
As to pecking nestlings to death, I doubt fledglings did that to the nestlings. Martins are just not pecking birds, they bite and pinch with their beaks and hit with their wings, but I have never seen any of them deliver pecks to the head on nest cams - that includes prolonged fights between adults, too. But, maybe there are some individuals who do - I would still suspect a house sparrow sneaked in. House Sparrows have the heavy bills that can deliver serious damage quickly, and are notorious for attacking nestlings. Usually fledgling intruders are looking for a meal, which they can easily get since they are bigger and more aggressive than the nestlings. Fledgling intruders can cause nestlings to starve, but they don't usually move in and stay.
At their worst, SY raiders throw out small nestlings and eggs. Fortunately the parents usually renest.
As to pecking nestlings to death, I doubt fledglings did that to the nestlings. Martins are just not pecking birds, they bite and pinch with their beaks and hit with their wings, but I have never seen any of them deliver pecks to the head on nest cams - that includes prolonged fights between adults, too. But, maybe there are some individuals who do - I would still suspect a house sparrow sneaked in. House Sparrows have the heavy bills that can deliver serious damage quickly, and are notorious for attacking nestlings. Usually fledgling intruders are looking for a meal, which they can easily get since they are bigger and more aggressive than the nestlings. Fledgling intruders can cause nestlings to starve, but they don't usually move in and stay.
I never new this about sy males. Last year I found 3 young thrown out of a gourd and the parents was left with one alive inside. I just assumed it was a starling. But what was weird is I never seen one and one did not stay or come back and try to nest in the cavity. I did have a single sy male. Do you think he did this? I guess its hard to tell. But makes since they must be upset from not getting a mate and getting to reproduce. This makes me hate it when I get a single sy male. Luckily this year that has not happen yet.