Wayward Fledgling Return

[dcronwell]

A couple years ago I had a fledgling from a different gourd return after a couple nights to a gourd that still had five babies in it. I guess he didn't like having to work for his food. The fledgling was dominating the other babies after a couple days and I, against my wife's protestations, intervened. I lowered the rack, took out the fledgling, gave him a good talking to, and released him (yep, he escaped during a nest check...). He didn't come back and all the babies that belonged in the gourd did just fine and fledged a week or so later.

Two weeks ago I had the same thing happen. Another lazy (smart?) fledgling took up residence in my only SY pair's gourd with their five babies. The SYs got a late start and were the only pair still feeding babies; all the rest had fledged. Again, after a couple or three days I noticed that the babies were not able to stop the fledgling from bogarting 90% of the food delivered by the SY pair. The first day that I noticed I just hoped for the best.
The second day I walked up to the rack every time I saw the fledgling go into the gourd and he flew away, but that cat and mouse game got old fast because the fledgling was winning. So again this year, I intervened and did a nest check to give the fledgling the same lecture and sent him on his way. Only problem was that two of the five babies were obviously stunted due to a likely three days without food. The SY pair's babies finally fledged on Fathers' Day, except only three flew. I found one stunted baby dead on the ground and the other dead in the nest.

Just wondering, is this common? Happened in my small colony twice in three years.

[Phil01]

That’s very interesting, some smart fledglings getting free meals! I’ve never had that happen here as far as I have noticed. I’ve seen them nudge past birds on the porch to get to the entrance to feed their babies or go inside to feed. Have seen fledglings land on the porches, opening their mouths begging for food a bunch, very cute to watch.
Phil

[Martintown33]

Damn, sorry that this happened to your martins.. to your point, I’ve seen exactly what Phil describes all the time. But I’ve never had a flying fledgling return to an active nest, that isn’t his, go in, and hog the food from smaller chicks in that nest. In fact I’ve observed just the opposite. Every year, I see Parents of those nests, very aggressively chase off fledglings that get too close or curious , about entering their compartments. I’ve even seen the parents grab and pull these fledglings off their porches. The fledglings learn fast not to try that again. Hope it all works out well!
Good luck!
Rob

[C.C.Martins]

Well no kidding. Porch dividers on a house protect against that, but never witnessed what you described. Bet its more common than we think.
What Rob describes is what iv seen here. I do remember one fledge land on the house porch and make his way over to the entrance and get a few dragonflies from the adults. Never in the cavity as far as I'm aware. Pretty interesting!

[dsonyay]

I’ve had this happen a couple times that I was able to see.. fledglings arriving at evening and scurrying into anything they could to escape the wrath of adults hassling them. I assumed they departed the next morning Never noticed any ill effects tho.

[dcronwell]

Yes, Martintown, I have seen lots of adults chase off fledglings, but these two times the fledglings somehow were accepted as just another hungry mouth to feed. Both times their larger size and strength was detrimental to the babies that were hatched in the gourds but only this year did it result in the loss of any babies. I was looking forward to fledging the last five babies but only got three off safely. If it happens again in the future and I see it, I will probably ignore my wife's suggestion to leave nature be and intervene ASAP. BTW, all but a dozen of our 70+ 2024 adults and fledglings are gone. I still have had ten to 15 birds return for an hour or two each day since the last ones fledged on Fathers' Day. If they check their calendars, I am sure they won't come back at all after just a few more days. They are usually gone the first week of July. I'm already looking forward to next year.

[Martintown33]

I’ve never seen parents accept an older fledgling as you described. But there’s always something new that happens with Martin landlording. It is unusual but im glad you had a good season and helped bring many more martins into their population!
Good luck
Rob