Unfed Chicks, Please advise!

[Guest]

Today's nest check was quite disturbing. In one particular compartment (the bottom left one) there were formerly five chicks. Today, there were two dead ones, and one living one! The compartment next to it (center), formerly containing two very young chicks, now had an additional (living) chick, seeming to be the right age for having come from "next door". The last compartment on that level and side (bottom right) was empty before, but now had one dead chick, also of about the same age. Basically, it seems like two of the five in the bottom left compartment moved to other compartments, one of which died. By my records, the two suvivors are at the most 22 days old, so I don't know that they could have fledged and come back to the wrong rooms. (One more chick on the top level on the same side was also dead). All other young in both houses appeared healthy.

I realized that last time I checked the houses I thought it had been rotated it. I checked all the young then of course, and all seemed fine, so I assumed I must have been mistaken and rotated it as I lowered it that day. I put it back up double-checking the correct orientation. The same three corresponding compartments are inhabited on both sides, with the exception of the one mentioned before where today there were the dead chicks. If the house was turned, this would be the only compartment that would not have had parents coming to it. However, I watched after this previous nest check and thought an adult went to this particular compartment, or maybe I was wrong.

But today, after removing the dead young, I sat and watched for an hour as all the other chicks were fed, but no one came to the lone chick remaining in the bottom left compartment. I decided it must have gotten at least some food during the day because there were fresh droppings in his compartment. But I became increasingly discouraged that anyone would feed him without him begging out the hole. So I moved him in the next compartment over - at least for now, since I knew the parents had accepted his sibling there. I watched for a while more, and still no one came to the bottom left compartment.

I am ashamed if I could have been careless enough to rotate the house, but I decided if I caused the death of three chicks - and maybe something else did, I ought to save the other two. The bottom center compartment as of this evening contains two near-fledging young, and two much younger. I know this probably can't work. There is another compartment with three young of within a day of age of the other young from the bottom left.

Should I move these into the same compartment since the two seem orphaned? If I had rotated the house last time, could the chicks have survived for the entire week before then when I was unable to do a nest check, or do you think that I did not rotate the house and something else caused the parents to not come back?

(Sorry this is so long, and probably doesn't make sense the whole way through, but if you can lend some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it)

[Laverne]

Good Morning, Brian.

I'm sorry there was no response made to your post last night.

Does your house have one continuous porch? If not, then I don't know how these nestlings could have migrated from one cavity to another. Maybe you did rotate the housing. Only you can determine that for certain.

Could the two "near fledging" size young actually be fledglings? The parents will bring them back to the housing in the late afternoon - early evening hours and the fledglings could have easily ended up in the wrong cavity. This will frequently happen - sometimes they are allowed to stay, sometimes they are immediately evicted and sometimes they are even killed by the parent birds of the invaded nest.

When you lower the houses next time - please mark them clearly, so you will know without a doubt that they are properly oriented.

You mention the bottom left compartment not being visited by adults - it is possible something happened to them. It seems highly unlikely both parents would go missing - but, it is possible. Something could have happened to the male earlier in the season and the female (trying to raise the young on her own) may have been recently taken. (I'm talking about hawk predation). But, you have multiple dead young in multiple cavities. Do they all appear to have just died from starvation? Or, do they look like they have been injured and killed? Could this have been a Starling or a Sparrow?

Let me know how things are - you're probably at work, like me. I'll try to log on this evening and check in with you.

[Guest]

Laverne.
I saw this post last night and emailed him that you would probably help in the morning. So glad you are out there - when you don't know what to do it is very hard.
Sharon

[Guest]

Thanks for the response...

Yes, there are 3 cavities connected by a porch per level per side. However, this morning we had a black snake, and unfortunately, it took three young out of the particular cavities where this problem was occuring. The snake is now more than a mile away and across several ditches in a woods away from houses - both bird and human. Fortunately, no other nests were disturbed. (Predator Guards to be ordered asap)

So the problem is simplified somewhat in that only one bird remains to be fed in that particular set of three with the connecting porch. I am watching it to see if any of the parents for either of the two adjacent nests, which the chick keeps switching between, are coming to feed it. I wonder if the black snake had something to do with the dead chicks yesterday, although I would think it would have eaten them, not just killed them. Either way, what's done is done. I just want to save this one martin - it's the least I can do.

There is a nest of young the same age as this nestling. If I do find that the snake scared off the parents or whatever has happened to them, I could move it to join the other nest. I'll let you know what happens.

[Laverne]

Thank you, Sharon.

You're getting a heck-uva education this season, aren't you!!???

I'm just wondering where everybody else is...

H-e-l-l-o-o-o... help...

[Laverne]

Hey, Brian.

Ok - snake - that answers that...

I don't know what kind of snake that was - it may have been venomous and killed before it ate. It may have been a constrictor and killed more than it could eat before it got scared away. It may have consumed the parents - or it may have sincerely frightened them away.

Putting the lone nestling in with the other nest close to his age is advisable - once you are certain the parents are gone... Do you have any crickets or mealworms? You might try feeding him - he's gotta be hungry.

To prevent the movement of PM young between nest cavities, the PMCA (and everybody else) recommends porch dividers. They keep the nestlings in their cavity and out of everybody elses. You could fashion these yourself out of wood or metal and attach them to your housing today. This is what I would do.

Let us know what happens... Good luck to you for the rest of your season to be "uneventful", but successful!!!

[Guest]

It was a "black rat snake", which I am pretty sure is a constrictor, so maybe that is what happened before...

Anyway, thank you for the advice. I think porch dividers sound like a good plan. Suppose we should have done these things in the first place, but our martins have always done so well with few problems, so we just never thought it a priority. But we'll get them fixed up and hopefully no more problems like these again!

Thanks

[Laverne]

Thank you for your honesty, Brian.

You had a serious problem - you were even questioning yourself with the orientation. I'm curious - how did you find the snake? Do you think he was there all along, moving from compartment to compartment - or do you think he was going up and down the pole each day?

Your experience and solution has opened somebody elses eyes today. I know what you mean about not thinking you needed predator guards because you had never experienced a problem. I don't have predator guards on my PM housing, either. But, I will before they go up next season! I don't ever want to experience the devastation a snake will bring to my colony. My Purple Martins are counting on me - with their very lives - to prevent this before it happens ...

So, we thank you, Brian!

[Guest]

Well, the chick is now with three others its age. So far so good. Parents seem to be tending to it.

We are down 7 chicks now from this event. Such a shame, but if all goes well, looks like we'll still fledge over 40 from the other 11 nests.

We discovered the snake when we saw it climbing from one level of the house to the next this morning. It certainly wasn't inside yesterday, so it must have climbed up and down each day. Such luck to see it! Who knows how much more it would have devastated the martins! We immediately lowered the house and managed to scare the snake out and into a bucket - with the help of a local farmer who happened to drive by . Then we drove a mile down the road and dumped it out.

Hopefully this is all, and the chick will do just fine with its new parents!

Have a great season!

[Guest]

Brian.
So glad you got it figured out.
I am not a snake expert, but I know lots of animals establish "territories". I wouldn't think a mile would be much for a snake to travel to get a good meal.
So just a thought....the predators guards might be in order this season yet....
sharon

[elyas]

Lost most of my colony to a snake this year. Never had a problem before. Predator guards next year for sure.

Seems your heart is in the right place. We do the best we can and we learn from our mistakes. You'll be a good landlord.

[Laverne]

...so will you, elyas, so will you...