A newbie with calendar and ID questions

[susanw77]

Some of you may recall I posted in February for advice because I’d bought a retirement home with a very shabby martin house. Shortly after I moved in early March 2019, a flock of cheerful birds took up residence. A visiting veterinarian glanced out the window and said, yes, they were martins. My nephew had hoped to help me erect a nicer house this year but his wife landed in the hospital and that plan went sideways. But I did get the old house down, cleaned, and I replaced all the floorboards and added back the missing porch rails. Then I prenested with white pine needles. I have supplemental feeding ready to go.

Now, using this website, I see that everyone around me has receive their martins 2-3 weeks past. (I am between Greensboro, NC and Roanoke, Virginia.) Early this week we had a pair of beautiful barn swallows hang around the martin house for a day, then they moved on. This morning there is a very cheerful flock of birds landing on the house and flitting back-and-forth across the lake. They look like swallows of some sort. In fact, they LOOK like what I had last year. One rested in a compartment with his head sticking out for about an hour. Others of the flock came to perch on the rail and visit him. They all look the same, with very bright white underbellies and throats. In looking at the Impostors page here, I believe they might tree swallows.

Is it possible that last year I had a colony of tree swallows? If we actually HAD martins last year, should I assume they are not coming back? If they are just late in arriving here, will martins share the house with the tree swallows? Or should I attempt to discourage the tree swallows? These visitors definitely are not starlings or house sparrows. They definitely have a swallow tail. But I do not believe they are martins.

TIA for any insight. I still feel pretty clueless, but determined.

[tboydshirt]

you have tree swallows now. did the birds last year have the distinctive loud melodic chirping? if not, i'll bet you have returning tree swallows which are territorial and might defend keeping martins away. if you put a tree swallow style box up about 50' away, and block the opening on the martin house, the swallows might accept the move. especially if you can get that box near water. find a site which lets you hear martins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_martin) and listen to their sounds or search youtube for both birds.

[Archer]

If you look at the dates on this report of last year's arrivals into Virginia, you will see that some had arrived by this date last year, also that many had not yet received their martins at this date. What I am trying to say is that there is still lots of time for martins to arrive at your location. The tree swallows should be discouraged from nesting in your martin house if you want to have martins. If the tree swallows become established in the martin house they may not let the martins in. I have witnessed one occasion where they both were in a martin house and tolerated each other but that is not the norm. https://www.purplemartin.org/research/s ... =2019&S=VA

[susanw77]

Thank you both so much. It is almost 4PM here now. Maybe I worried for no reason. The swallows seem to have all left around 2PM. Could they have been stopping over en route to another nesting site? I really do hope I had martins, and that they will return. I am racking my brain what sound they made. There is so much birdsong here, it is like a cacophony most of the time.

[deancamp]

I agree, it sounds like tree swallows. You should be prepared for them to return. They could very well be out feeding and be back to claim the nest at some point.

[flyin-lowe]

A couple things that will help with the ID. First off tree swallows have a snow white breast/underside. Martins, depending on age and sex will have different color breast but none have an absolutely snow White underside. You describe a flock of the birds. Most of the time tree swallows will not nest in flocks, almost always there will only be one pair in a housing setup. Most will say it never happens but I did one time years ago have two pair of tree swallows nest in the same gourd rack. So if you had more then 1 pair it was probably not tree swallows but there is a slight chance it could have been.
Lastly the easiest giveaway is the martins vocalization. Go to YouTube and watch any video of a martin colony and once you hear them you will recognize it right away in the future. They are very vocal and their vocolozarions are very recognizable. Once you listen to a video of a martin colony you will know right away if those were the birds that were at your place last year.

[Dave Duit]

If you google video a search for "purple martin life by Dave Duit" and fast forward the video to 8:37 you will see a picture of a tree swallow. I hope this will assist you in Identifications.

[Archer]

Good website for Bird Identification and sound. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pur ... n/overview https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tre ... w/overview

[susanw77]

So the birds yesterday didn’t return last night, nor this morning. When they were here, there were 3-4 on the martin house at all times, with what looked like more swooping over the lake. I am 90% sure, having looked at all the pics, that they were tree swallows. Sounds like it was weird to see them traveling together? In any case, they’ve moved on I hope. I did listen to the martin audio clips. We had a lot of similar chatter at the house last spring, so I am hopeful.

My martin watch will resume . . . fingers crossed.

[flyin-lowe]

Not really weird to see them traveling together. I was just talking about nesting behavior. Since you talked about having multiple pair living together last year that is what I was talking about when I said it would be odd. It's not uncommon this time of year for me to see multiple pair of tree swallows together while feeding and looking at housing etc. Once they pair up and nest they typically won't allow another pair to nest nearby.