Today watching out the window I watched a nestling, due to fledge any day, hanging its head and part of its body out the entrance of its gourd. Suddenly an adult PM flew to it, grabbed it with its feet (like a hawk does) and flew off dangling the fledgling. I tried to see if it dropped it, or if the fledgling flew but couldn’t tell. Checked the ground around and nothing.
Could this be a subadult pulling out a nestling or a parent trying to get it to fledge?
Thanks for any insight.
Our First in Twenty Years
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Sharon - Central TX
- Posts: 696
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 9:20 pm
- Location: Central TX
- Martin Colony History: All Troyer Horizontal Gourds with Conley Entrances
PMCA Member since 2004
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C.C.Martins
- Posts: 3368
- Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:15 am
- Location: Corpus Christi Tx
- Martin Colony History: 2016- Visitors.
2017- 5 pair. 15 fledged
2018- 18 pair. 85 fledged
2019- 17 pair. 81 fledged
2020- 25 pair. 111 fledged
2021- 28 pair. 118 fledged
2022- 33 pair. 151 fledged
2023- 33 pair. 165 fledged
2024- 40 pair. 185 fledged
2025- 40 pair. 181 fledged
HOSP:
Home colony: mix natural, super, Troyer and excluder gourds, enlarged compartment house. All SREH.
Satellite colony: Oso Bay Preserve: 49 PMCA excluder gourds; 16 room Lonestar Goliad with Modified Excluder entrances.
2019: Visitors
2020: 3 pair, 11 fledged
2021: 10 pair, 30 fledged
2022: 11 pair, 35 fledged
2023: 18 pair, 101 fledged
2024: 39 pair, 181 fledged
2025: 51 pair, 216 fledged
PMCA member
No kidding!!!! Wow, yes that is a new one, good lord. Grabbed it and went! Never ending wonder with these guys.
We are swamped with lousy subbies so I'd be too quick to blame them.
Perhaps it was a fed up adult! Fly already, we gotta go!
We are swamped with lousy subbies so I'd be too quick to blame them.
Perhaps it was a fed up adult! Fly already, we gotta go!
A good house sparrow is a dead house sparrow.
HOSP: 17. Starlings: 23
HOSP: 17. Starlings: 23
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Bird Brain
- Posts: 327
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 9:22 am
- Location: Highland Village, TX
- Martin Colony History: 2022-visitors, 2023-visitors, 2024-1 pair, fledged 4, 2025-10 pair, fledged 42
I would guess Momma got tired of waiting for it to fly. So grabbed it, dropped it to force the issue. I recently had a fledgling hanging on a gourd arm too scared to fly. Momma tried to drag it off the gourd arm to make it fly. It fell down to the next level instead. It eventually flew but I couldn't believe that the female would grab her baby like that to force it to fly. It does happen. I think you'll be fine next year. 20 years for occupation in Texas. Gotta be a record. Good job waiting that one out. LOL