Seeking solutions for starling

[Guest]

New problem though. A couple of days ago a starling showed up and inhabited one of the gourds that a sparrow had started rebuilding in. 12 of these are new supergourds with starling-resistant entrances, but the others are old-style gourds with round holes. Wondering if there is a recommended way to retrofit these gourds with starling-resistant entrances. I'm hoping I can et a friend to do some target practice on this starling, but I'm very worried in the interim. Suggestions welcome!

I am told Emil's suggestion of lowering the gourds at night and blocking the starling occupied gourd in the pre-dawn hours actually works, and will give it serious consideration...

In the meantime, we are trying to refashion the gourd entrance to make it more like a starling excluder. By cutting a piece of plastic to fit the gourd entrance and block about half of it and securing that to the gourd with strong tape. My one concern is that the starling excluder entrances seem to be not only shorter in height, but also wider -- this workaround in shorter but not wider. However. thinking if the starling can't get into its favorite gourd, perhaps the martins will get brave and chase it away. Since this particular gourd had had a sparrow in it anyway, we're not losing a martin-occupied gourd to the colony.
Thanks,
Susan in San Antonio

[Louise Chambers]

Susan,

I would let it stay in that gourd, otherwise you are just going to send it into a martin-occupied gourd. You are right, the starling resistant entrance does need to be wider. Gourds can be converted but first I'd see if your friend can shoot it for you - or try Emil's method of plugging it right before daylight. Or wait til it's gone inside and be ready to plug hole in daytime, or to catch it with fishing net after it goes inside.

[electraglideman]

Trap him: http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_in ... b05e9caee0

[Guest]

Unfortunately, the gourd this starling has chosen is apparently not one of those for which this trap device was designed. It's an old-style plastic gourd with a round hole and no porch. Apparently not even sold any more...at least not through PMCA.
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Thanks for everyone's interest, however. It's appreciated.
Susan -- long time PMCA member

[Louise Chambers]

Susan, that looks like a supergourd, so the trap ought to fit it. A round hole supergourd, no porch - the trap is a good option.

[Guest]

I think this appears to be a supergourd because I added rain canopies to the gourds some time ago. In addition to this rack of older gourds, I also have a rack of supergourds, so I feel quite certain the starling's choice in gourds is not a super-variety.
Thanks again,
susan

[Brad-AL]

I concur with the others. The gourds in that picture ARE Supergourds. If it's not, it's identical to a Supergourd and I have never seen another gourd that looks like a Supergourd.

[Dan Clodfelter]

Susan, it's just my two cents for what it's worth ! I had starling problems a few years ago and changed most gourds to Conley 2 tunnels and the martins go right inside them and the tunnel makes them feel safer. If you put tunnels on them , your martins will choose tunnels before anything else. I have a super colony in Indiana that is starling and sparrow free. I take a Dremel I use to zip a hole in a super gourd and install the conley 2 to the super gourd with 100% silicone.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I too think that the martins love the tunnels with SREH, and there is no doubt in my mind about that.

[RC Moser]

"perhaps the martins will get brave and chase it away" IMO PMs can not chase away established starling nest. The PM's will get killed it they try. seen this many times starling can nest in PM colony once they establish their nest (course makes most of landlord want puke, but better than getting PMs killed especially in small colony). starlings will go only to their gourd. If you can't kill it leave it alone in gourd setup or IMO as suggested you will just drive to occupied PM nest and the Female PM will be killed. They cannot win fight with starling they don't have the weapons.

If you make your own srehs make sure they are exactly proper demension or PMs may not be able to enter if too small and if too big (even 2 MMs) (1/64th inch) some starlings may be able to get through.

[billb]

Susan: If the martins are not sitting on eggs yet, I would plug the hole until I could get an SREH solution in place. Could be a problem for other Martin occupied gourds and needs to be considered.

I had a similar problem with an old Dura Craft aluminium house with round holes (kin to a Trio Castle). Thankfully, I never had sparrow or starling problems at my current site, but a starling showed up to claim the one cavity I had expanded to 12x12. He/she evicted the martins and started robbing the 6x6 cavities to add to it's nest, even killed an ASY male. Eventually I plugged the hole while waiting for a Conley II entrance plate to arrive. The starling left to nest somewhere else and I installed SREH plate. I assume this worked because I had no other attractive options for the starling, which may not be the case for you.

[Guest]

I'm inclined to purchase some new entrances for my gourds -- thinking about tunnels -- maybe even with doglegs. Would this freak out my nesting martins if I did it now rather than after they fledge their young?
Whoever writes "you can please some of the martins all of the time, and none of the martins all of the time...etc."" absolutely has it right. Throw a starling into the mix and everything escalates.

[electraglideman]

That's Super Gourds in the picture.

[Joe Creason KY]

Well Susan, you are correct. This is the first year that I have had problems with starlings. They are actually able to enter into my Conley II entrances on my Troyer horizontal gourds. I have some of the Troyer vertical gourds as well, and they are not bothering them. I just don't understand how they can actually get that large of a frame into that small of an entrance.

I have sent several starlings to their grave and will continue to do so as long as it takes, because NO TRASH BIRD WILL RUIN MY FAMILY'S BREEDING GROUNDS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT IT TAKES.

I will fight to the bitter end. I love my martins and I think they love me.

Joe

[Guest]

My friend, who is an excellent shot, killed it this morning with a single shot! It fell in front of a cat, who thought birds from on high was a great idea.
Thanks for all your support.

[jeffwilliams72]

Congrats Susan, those trash beaks can be terrifying!

[freefallr]

For the first time, I'm having trouble with starlings getting through my crescent SREH doors. I managed to shoot one of them, but they're quite wary so I came up with a different option.

I took one of my Spare-o-door sparrow traps and enlarged the opening to accomodate starlings and it works like a charm. All this takes is a jigsaw with a metal-cutting blade and I've attached a photo so you all can see how it looks. The house does have to be monitored in case a martin enters the trap, but if you wait until the starling "owns" the cavity, it's extremly unlikely that a martin will enter.

Once caught, they seem to be much more reluctant than a sparrow to exit into the plastic bag, but with a little prodding from the back side, they finally come out and get introduced to Mr. Tin Snips.

[Guest]

I have a friend who used to work for a wildlife rehabber. She says that they received many, many starlings and sparrows at the facility and dutifully recovered them for return to the wild. This is astonishing, except for knowing that there are folks who don't understand how destructive and threatening and mean these invasive species can be to our native birds. Does anyone know whether there is an organization of rehabbers or guidelines or ANYTHING that would lead to NOT rehabbing these birds?
One can have sympathy for the concerned citizen who collects an injured bird -- not knowing any context for it -- and transports it to a rehabber. But once there, the rehabber should be expected to act with the larger picture in mind, i.e., don't return these birds to the wild.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Susan, its the same with surveys that wildlife authorities conduct, they often set traps to get bird counts, then they release all the birds, even the starlings and sparrows. Sometimes starlings are poisoned at feed lots with the consent of these same wildlife people. This sounds like a government run operatiion, the right hand don't know what the left hand is doing