egg alone?Blue Bird Egg in Martin Nest??
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Guest
I discovered a blue bird egg that showed up this week in the PM nest. There were already 5 PM eggs with 2 of them (PMs) hatching today. Just leave the BB egg alone?
egg alone?-
Dale Hrncirik
Citrus,
Please watch that cavity to see what other bird is occupying that nest. BB eggs are often confused with starling eggs as their color is similar. It is very abnormal to have PM hatchlings and a new odd colored egg. Not likely a BB would lay on top of martin eggs...I've never heard of such but it does sound like what a starling might do. Are the martins still attending to their young? If not, I'm guessing the starlings may have killed or ran off the martins just as the eggs were hatching. I hope not but it won't be the first time. Please let us know what transpires.
Good luck,
Dale
Please watch that cavity to see what other bird is occupying that nest. BB eggs are often confused with starling eggs as their color is similar. It is very abnormal to have PM hatchlings and a new odd colored egg. Not likely a BB would lay on top of martin eggs...I've never heard of such but it does sound like what a starling might do. Are the martins still attending to their young? If not, I'm guessing the starlings may have killed or ran off the martins just as the eggs were hatching. I hope not but it won't be the first time. Please let us know what transpires.
Good luck,
Dale
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Glen Webb Jr
- Posts: 478
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 1:03 pm
- Location: Illinois/Stewardson
If the egg is larger than the other eggs/young in the nest, then it is most certainly a starling egg. I'm willing to bet right now that's what it is. Bluebirds are too peaceful for something like that IMO.
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Guest
Probably not a bluebird egg, but not completely impossible. Bluebirds have been known to engage in "egg dumping," where a female lays an egg (which may or may not be fertile) into another bluebird's nest for her to raise. This may be the offspring of the male associated with the nest or it may be the result of an unrelated pair who lost their nest at a critical point in time.
I don't know of any occasion of bluebirds dumping their eggs into another species' nest, but I suppose it might happen.
Can you measure the blue egg (very carefully) with a delicate pair of calipers or a ruler marked in millimeters? An Eastern Bluebird egg should be 16mm wide (at the widest point) and 21 mm long (at the longest), while a European Starling's is larger (21mm wide by 29mm long). By comparison, a Purple Martin egg is between those sizes - 18mm wide by 25mm long. If your blue egg is smaller than the white ones, it is a bluebird; larger, it is a starling.
I don't know of any occasion of bluebirds dumping their eggs into another species' nest, but I suppose it might happen.
Can you measure the blue egg (very carefully) with a delicate pair of calipers or a ruler marked in millimeters? An Eastern Bluebird egg should be 16mm wide (at the widest point) and 21 mm long (at the longest), while a European Starling's is larger (21mm wide by 29mm long). By comparison, a Purple Martin egg is between those sizes - 18mm wide by 25mm long. If your blue egg is smaller than the white ones, it is a bluebird; larger, it is a starling.