Preventing suffocation deaths in cold weather

[robinlarry]

This year, during my first nest check, I discovered one gourd with eight dead adult martins. I assume, during our cold snap here in Ohio, the birds huddled in that gourd and subsequently suffocated. To prevent this next year, if we have similar weather, I would like to drop all but a single pole (with 24 gourds) and place hand warmers in each gourd. During the cold snap, I estimate we had approximately 40 birds. Is tis a reasonable strategy?

[flyin-lowe]

It's not uncommon for communal roosting in cold temps. I don't know if it has been documented that suffocation is the cause of deaths when these are found or not. Often times it is assumed that one bird dies and then the other birds can't get out, causing the others to perish. Using hand warmers can be a good strategy but it may or may not stop communal roosting. Even the 12 hour hand warmers don't always produce enough warmth for that long. There was a thread going earlier discussing the temps that are fatal to martins as apposed to them dying from starvation because of a cold snap, which keeps insects from flying. In my case this year I had about 30 martins here when the cold front came through. Almost all of them left (I assume for a communal roost) and didn't return until a few days later when the temps warmed back up. I am not sure if hand warmers would have kept them around or not.

[Dave Duit]

Ditto on what Flyin Lowe said. It is good to keep an eye on an entrance being blocked due to communal nesting during cold snaps. This would be similar to a wing entrapment and the remaining martins inside the gourd would die.

[lynnh]

Supplemental feeding helps them to survive the cold wet weather.