Do single adults build nests?

[richnet12]

Or does behaviour only begin when a pair bonds. My Trio house has three nests but does not apper to have three females....but there are three males.

[John Miller]

The males will sometimes swirl out a nest bowl in the pre nest material, and maybe bring in a few green leaves. but if it's a substantial amount of new material, watch for sparrows or starlings. The start of a sparrow nest usually is coarse grass around the bottom, and looped into a dome within a few days of building, then including bits of paper, other litter and feathers.

[Guest]

Talking from experience from my colony, nest building usually begins when the female decides where SHE wants to live. I have to agree with John. It sounds as though you might have some sparrows wanting to take up residence.

[richnet12]

There are afew sparrows and the martins are holding them at bay. Those little buggers can build a thick nest in a day!

[ChrisM]

I was wondering if the male martins had built a SWIRL of material to the back of the box. It didnt look like any sparrow material, but of course the little B..s'were still hanging around. I have never have seen this before, and, this was last night when I was giving up hope after my tri-pole got jammed, and BEFORE I read the above posts. I will have to be more observant.

Thank you for all of your valuable information.

Chrism

[Connie Roman ~ NJ]

I have observed my SY bachelor martins fill their gourds with the nesting material I had put out for the martins. It’s as if he is practicing or maybe copying the behavior of martins around him. It doesn’t happen very often.