Owl guard idea

[kratz71]

I've been raising gouldian finches for years and use a specific kind of nest box like the one pictured. It occurred to me that this might be a good design for martin housing to prevent owls and hawks from being able to see the entrance hole and therefore any martins that might be inside. What are your thoughts?

[birdbrat]

That is interesting. If you don't mind my "tweeking" the plan a bit, I'd like to build something simalar and mount a couple of them at my site just to see how they do. I think your main idea pertaining to using it for martins is that the predator wouldn't see into the entrance hole. But at the same time we need to try to keep a flight path for the martins, plus a couple other changes.... It may take me a while because my time is very limited, but I'd like to give it a shot. I'm always up for a new idea! Thanks!

[kratz71]

I'm going to attach a porch wide board to 2 sides of my t-14 that will eventually block to fronts of those sides. The martins will have to enter into the entry way from the sides and then turn and go into the holes.

[Louise Chambers]

Some landlords have used a similar approach and it should work well. It's nothing to do with a predator seeing the martins inside the cavity (owls hunt by sound more than sight; hawks do hunt by sight) - it works because it blocks access to the cavity. Some landlords build baffles into their nest trays - this approach is much like that, only with baffle on exterior of porch, should work well on most house designs.

[Dave Duit]

I love to see experimenting like your owl guard. i think that future progress in developing new martin gadgets satrt with ideas such as your owl gaurd. Nice work and thanks.