Besieged by Smaller Starlings !!

[Hanover Bill]

Count me in the group who believes that Starlings are evolving into a smaller size or sub-species. I had never had a breach of an SREH until last year when a Starling breached an Excluder II entrance. I was fortunate to find her still in the gourd when I lowered it one day, and she was dispatched.

This year I seem to be besieged by a whole flock of these smaller birds. I just watched one enter and exit an Excluder II with ease. In and out several times, and carrying nest material. This creates an entirely new problem for the Purple Martin Landlord. Until last year I felt very secure that I had no worries from Starlings entering SREH entrances, such doesn't appear to be the case from now on. Hopefully someone will come up with a solution to this new problem. I have my hands full with HOSP, I don't need an additional issue to deal with.

I would be interested to hear viewpoints on this

Hanover Bill.

[ToyinPA]

Same here Bill. Had one get in last year. There were 2 ASY Males in the cavity fighting. One escaped. Lowered the house & the 2nd male escaped. We managed to trap the starling & dispose of it. 3 years ago I had one get in the same cavity twice & attack my Alpha female. She died later from internal injuries. The smaller starlings seem to be more early spring. Seems as tho they get skinny over winter & manage to get in the cavities. Later, when they fatten up, they can't fit in as easy.

I have no real answers other than set traps or shoot them & hope for the best. Living in town all we can get away with using is a BB gun, so it's not easy to shoot them. Having said that my husband managed to shoot 2 starlings a few days ago. My Alpha male took a 3rd one to the ground. The nest box trap in the PMCA shop is what we use to catch them, but they have to go in it first. Got several so far. Some set up a separate house with a tunnel trap in their housing where they fall thru down into a wire cage. The downside is you may catch martins in it too.

Best wishes.

Toy in PA

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I lower the housing to the point that I can reach the gourd with a stepladder where the sparrow (or starling) is nesting. I then put an 8ft stepladder in place so I can close the entrance and the starling cannot get out, I close the entrance at night. The next day, I dispose of the scum bird. Fortunately, the martins do not mind, and fortunately the scum birds usually take the lowest gourds. I am careful at night that I do not shake the other gourds on that pole.

[pmlover]

you need an s and s trap ive killed 100 small starlings in it i get 200 + the last two years

[Curtis Reil]

We’ve had a couple Martins back for two or three days now. This morning I was waiting for the my coffee to finish percolating so I could go out on the deck and listen/watch them. Excited I was. Heard some ever so shrill vocals of a Starling. Turned to see one on a porch and then watched it wiggle into a cavity. This was the first time I had witnessed one breach a SREH. Set up my air rifle in a comfortable shooting position on the kitchen table and slid the window open. Business was handled in short order. The Starling didn’t appear smaller than average but on the hole it breached, that porch was a little loose and angled down slightly. I believe that little bit of slope was all it needed to get its legs under enough to push in. A couple screws sucked the porch in tight and level again. One more item to add to the list for house prep. It’s a fine line between safety and doom.

[Tengai]

Having same problem of stagings getting into supposed excluder entrances
I raised the floors to totally level and it seems to have helped but still have at least one getting in and building a nest.
My in nest trap seems too small for a starling I will lower house and block entrance after dark to dispatch in the am I think.

[Birds]

I have been trying to attract purple martins for 2 years now and I made my own starling resistance entrance holes on a heath house. I had never had a starling problems before. But recently I had a male and a female starling get into the house. So I built a birdhouse trap and that got rid of the starlings. I realized that I needed to find a way to prevent any more starlings from entering the house. So I took a piece of plastic and cut some entrance holes in the plastic, then I glued the new plastic entrance holes over top my old ones. So now the entrance holes are twice as thick and the starlings have not been able to enter the house.

[lynnh]

Hey Bill, why not try Emil Pampell's method of keeping starlings out?

[wmfamily]

The little rats showed up here today. I saw only one enter but there are others hanging around. One male is trying his best to convince some females to stay but I saw only the one who could fit in the entry. The others tried and ended up leaving. I think this bunch are newly fledged but it is hard to say for sure.

I have tried trapping but I normally only catch one or two a year. I have another idea I want to try tomorrow so we will see what happens. The one I did manage to catch today was caught in the nest box type trap that I enlarged the hole on. I wish I could use a pellet gun on them and I wouldn't have a single sparrow or starling hanging around for long. Living in a subdivision has its disadvantages...

[Brad Biddle]

https://www.purplemartin.org/forum/view ... =2&t=35271

EDIT to add: If not for Lewis posting last year when I posted a similar thread to yours, I would, almost certainly, have lost most of my colony for this year. I saw Emil's modification and I imagine it would work too.

I still had one Starling entering my gourds after I put on the WEP's, but a subsonic 22 removed that problem. If you get the WEP's, you have to make sure that the inside top of the WEP is flush with the top of the entrances. Not higher. I did not raise the porches on my gourds. They aren't very low to start with.