Impact Of Losing A Mate In Purple Martin Society

[Steve Kroenke]

Recently several ASY male martins "disappeared". They probably were caught by migrating Accipiter hawks or merlins away from our colonies. Within several days all the "widowed" females had new mates and these were SY males that were ready to step in and take the place of the lost ASY males! None of the females had any eggs so these females were more receptive to a "strange" male courting her!

I am reposting an older article dealing with this subject.

Steve

[Davlyn]

Hey Steve , I also lost two ASY males in the last few weeks not sure what happened , but like you in a few days SY started trying to court them and after a fight they both accepted the new mates , but both of these females had eggs and it seems like they both are still incubating their eggs . Not sure . Thanks for reactivaing this post

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey April,

If the SY males are persistent, then they can sometimes be accepted as new mates for females who may be incubating full sets of eggs. In all the cases I have seen, the males were good mates and didn't remove any of the eggs. I have not seen SY males remove eggs just small nestlings, but it probably happens.

Now if the females were feeding small nestlings, then matters would probably be a lot different. I have NEVER seen any female with babies accept a strange male as a new mate after her mate disappeared. She viciously attacked him and tried to drive him away. Unfortunately in the vast majority of those cases the new male threw out any small babies or caused larger babies to starve or become severely malnourished.

Hopefully your new SY males will be good mates and take care of their "adopted" families!

Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

duplicate! Deleted!

Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

Each season, mated male and female martins disappear for various reasons and often I never know what happened. The surviving mate then becomes a widow or widower and what happens may depend on what stage in the breeding cycle the martins are currently in.

I am re-posting an older article dealing with the subject of the impact of losing a mate.

Steve

[ToyinPA]

Hey April,

If the SY males are persistent, then they can sometimes be accepted as new mates for females who may be incubating full sets of eggs. In all the cases I have seen, the males were good mates and didn't remove any of the eggs. I have not seen SY males remove eggs just small nestlings, but it probably happens.

Now if the females were feeding small nestlings, then matters would probably be a lot different. I have NEVER seen any female with babies accept a strange male as a new mate after her mate disappeared. She viciously attacked him and tried to drive him away. Unfortunately in the vast majority of those cases the new male threw out any small babies or caused larger babies to starve or become severely malnourished.

Hopefully your new SY males will be good mates and take care of their "adopted" families!

Steve

Steve:
There is an exception to every rule....I NEVER say NEVER anymore.

I had an ASY pair that had 3 or 4 chicks.....can't remember. A hawk got the male 2 days after their chicks hatched. She accepted a SY male 2 days later. I expected to see him toss or kill the chicks. To my surprise the SY male took over feeding & helped raise & fledge all the chicks.

I've had SY's arrive & kill chicks that had both parents. You never know what will happen.

Nature can be surprising .

Toy in PA

[Cheryl S]

Thanks for reposting this information, Steve. It was helpful for me last year for a situation I experienced.