Extreme Birdhouses
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Fred Kaluza~MI
- Posts: 606
- Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:40 pm
- Location: Port Huron, Michigan
- Martin Colony History: Tried and tried and had some visitors but...not enough good insects around here to keep them interested.
Thanks for the location John. Wow! I sailed across Lake Huron once to Goderich and Kincardine and have always wanted to make my way up the Bruce Penninsula to Tobermoray. It's probably interesting terrain because I've done a little rock climbing and am facinated by the Niagara Escarpment area. Well, being inland I don't know how many Martins you can expect but there are quite a few Canadian landlords on this site. Mary Wilson is on the North shore of Lake Erie and you may already know about the Essex County Purple Martin Association down here around Windsor I think. Anyway...Good luck and I hope you decide to give it a try! They say entrance size is critical in deterring the Starlings which are arch enemies of Martins. Actually the hole size & shape is an ongoing topic of discussion as birds in some areas seem pre-disposed to one or another.
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Guest
John,
Great looking houses! Beautiful actually.
Are you going to build a "bird house" for the woodworking magazine or are you building a "purple martin house"? As mentioned earlier, no native cavity nesting birds are drawn to "multi-family" homes except martins so it is essentially a "work of art" and not functional if it is not designed for martins (starlings and sparrows will nest but they are not native and are detrimental to other native, cavity nesting birds). If it will be a martin house and you want to make it fuctional for real martins rather than ornamental, you can get a lot of help on this forum. With your skills and obvious creativity, you could probably pull off a beautiful yet functional martin home! Believe me, folks on this site would truly enjoy seeing such a project.
A few points for your consideration:
- Starlings are native to Europe and House Sparrows are native to England and should not be allowed to nest in America
- 6" x 12" (with entry in the 6" wall) cavities are deeper and allow the martins to nest away from the entry hole out of reach of owls and hawks which prey on martins. You can also have the box turned sideways (entry in the 12" wall.....near the end) so martins make a 90 deg turn to get to the nest. Martins feel safe in this setup and owls looking in can't see the martins.
- House design should keep the nest dry
- Folks like easy access to the nest cavities for nest checks (which are performed every 2 - 4 days) during the nesting period and to clean out the nests at the end of the year. The easier to get to the nests, the better folks like it. Also, it is not mandatory but preferred to expose only one nest at a time (don't want a nestling hopping out of a nest while you checking on another nest.....which nest did he come from?)
- To perform nest checks, one needs to be able to lower and raise the house. If it is real heavym this is more difficult. Also, a heavy house can really hurt someone if it falls. And it takes a lot stronger pole and footing to hold a heavy house in place during high winds etc.
- No exact rule here but most folks want their houses around 12' - 16' off the ground. Too high and it takes a much stronger pole to withstand forces wind makes blowing against the house. The shorter the pole is the easier it is for predators to get to the house (snakes, racoons, squirrels, cats, etc.). It takes a much stronger pole to mount a 50 lb house 12' off the ground than it does to mount it 4' from the ground.
- Martins will nest together......but they still fight at times. The further the entry holes are apart the less fighting there will be. Ideally, a martin sticking his head out of an entry hole couldn't see another entry hole.
- Martins love perches around their home. Sometimes the male will perch near their their nest and guard their chosen cavity.
- Some entry holes are shaped so that martins can enter and starlings can't (or at lest very few can and then with great difficulty). You may want to research different style entry holes.
- In some areas, a nest sized 6" x 6" with a big, round entry hole is referred to as an owl feeder.
Best of luck and I for one would love to see what kind of creative martin house design you can come up with. I get stuck thinking "inside the box" and a new approach would be refreshing.
Great looking houses! Beautiful actually.
Are you going to build a "bird house" for the woodworking magazine or are you building a "purple martin house"? As mentioned earlier, no native cavity nesting birds are drawn to "multi-family" homes except martins so it is essentially a "work of art" and not functional if it is not designed for martins (starlings and sparrows will nest but they are not native and are detrimental to other native, cavity nesting birds). If it will be a martin house and you want to make it fuctional for real martins rather than ornamental, you can get a lot of help on this forum. With your skills and obvious creativity, you could probably pull off a beautiful yet functional martin home! Believe me, folks on this site would truly enjoy seeing such a project.
A few points for your consideration:
- Starlings are native to Europe and House Sparrows are native to England and should not be allowed to nest in America
- 6" x 12" (with entry in the 6" wall) cavities are deeper and allow the martins to nest away from the entry hole out of reach of owls and hawks which prey on martins. You can also have the box turned sideways (entry in the 12" wall.....near the end) so martins make a 90 deg turn to get to the nest. Martins feel safe in this setup and owls looking in can't see the martins.
- House design should keep the nest dry
- Folks like easy access to the nest cavities for nest checks (which are performed every 2 - 4 days) during the nesting period and to clean out the nests at the end of the year. The easier to get to the nests, the better folks like it. Also, it is not mandatory but preferred to expose only one nest at a time (don't want a nestling hopping out of a nest while you checking on another nest.....which nest did he come from?)
- To perform nest checks, one needs to be able to lower and raise the house. If it is real heavym this is more difficult. Also, a heavy house can really hurt someone if it falls. And it takes a lot stronger pole and footing to hold a heavy house in place during high winds etc.
- No exact rule here but most folks want their houses around 12' - 16' off the ground. Too high and it takes a much stronger pole to withstand forces wind makes blowing against the house. The shorter the pole is the easier it is for predators to get to the house (snakes, racoons, squirrels, cats, etc.). It takes a much stronger pole to mount a 50 lb house 12' off the ground than it does to mount it 4' from the ground.
- Martins will nest together......but they still fight at times. The further the entry holes are apart the less fighting there will be. Ideally, a martin sticking his head out of an entry hole couldn't see another entry hole.
- Martins love perches around their home. Sometimes the male will perch near their their nest and guard their chosen cavity.
- Some entry holes are shaped so that martins can enter and starlings can't (or at lest very few can and then with great difficulty). You may want to research different style entry holes.
- In some areas, a nest sized 6" x 6" with a big, round entry hole is referred to as an owl feeder.
Best of luck and I for one would love to see what kind of creative martin house design you can come up with. I get stuck thinking "inside the box" and a new approach would be refreshing.
John... probably the biggest single threat to martins in my neck of the woods are starlings. With a round 2" hole there is nothing to prevent a starling coming in at any point in the nesting cycle and killing adults and young (this happens a lot).
Unfortunately all the starling-resistant entry holes (called SREH around here) I know of are wider than 2" (including the basic crescent). This precludes using any simple inserts in the basic 2" hole design, rather one has to start with an SREH design to begin with OR have replaceable entrance plates or inserts with different entry designs (see the Natureline and S&K Big Bo gourds in the "Products" section of this web site.
Congrats again on your obvious talent, and thanks on behalf of all of us for taking this topic seriously. Like John and others have said, we don't mess around when it comes to the welfare of our martins
Regards,
Mike Scully
Unfortunately all the starling-resistant entry holes (called SREH around here) I know of are wider than 2" (including the basic crescent). This precludes using any simple inserts in the basic 2" hole design, rather one has to start with an SREH design to begin with OR have replaceable entrance plates or inserts with different entry designs (see the Natureline and S&K Big Bo gourds in the "Products" section of this web site.
Congrats again on your obvious talent, and thanks on behalf of all of us for taking this topic seriously. Like John and others have said, we don't mess around when it comes to the welfare of our martins
Regards,
Mike Scully
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Guest
Thank you Mike and to everyone else for the education on martins.i will be doing a lot of ready on all birds.i saw another thread here that shows martin houses. i think i can handle building one. 
thanks again
john
thanks again john