The other day I was mucking about with some flat black spray paint, painting the outside of a compost machine's drum to help things heat up inside when the sun is out, and I recalled how paint can be used to help attract PMs to new sites...
I read somewhere -- maybe it was here? -- that painting 2" diameter black "holes" on the sides of gourds and PM housing gives the impression of more cavities than there really are. We've done this on our Troyer Horizontal Gourds, and it really does work, as we've seen PMs fly up to the side of the gourd and check out what they thought was a hole, then investigate further until they found the porch.
So, taking into consideration the article posted in the Archives discussing SREHs and how PMs would rather use a round opening (but will use the SREH if it means no starlings), what do you think would happen if I were to paint a 2" diameter fake hole just above the opening of a SREH? Might investigating PMs be drawn more to this type of door than one without the fake hole?
On the second part of the subject: 2-dimensional "shadow" decoys. We all know that PM decoys work. But does a decoy have to be three dimensional? Has anyone ever painted a life-sized silouhette of a perching PM on their house, perhaps on the side? Something to suggest the presence of a bird being there.
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