Plant fiber entanglement - need help!

[art]

I now have a second martin flying about with fine plant fibers (4-5") wrapped around the tarsus. I had previously added pine needles to all trays weeks ago and this is new material they are gathering and bringing to the nest. This bird is spending a lot of time at the T-14 but I don't know if a specific apartment has been chosen yet.
I am concerned and need advice as to how, if possible, can I catch the bird and remove the fibers? There is no egg laying yet in my colony.

[John Miller]

Hopefully it will fall off in a day or so, but if you feel it's a threat to his getting snagged on something, you could watch for when the bird goes in to roost. Then quietly set a tall step ladder if you have one by the housing and plug the entrance with a sock. Try to be quiet to not flush the birds. You could try to reach up with something like a pruning pole holding a sock and wedge it in, or even to set a small box in front of the entrance hole. Then you can lower in the morning, open slowly to take the bird and gently remove the fiber, but be aware that handling like this may cause him to abandon. All this is a little tedious, and does risk flushing all the birds after dark. If you don't feel up to it, just keep a watch on the bird. If it were to get snagged, it probably would be on the housing in some way.

It's always something.

John M

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

What John said, or you can lower the housing so that you can reach the correct cavity where it is at nighttime by using a stepladder, then close the cavity with a heavy board or piece of metal. The next morning you can fix the problem.