Will babies survive with one parent?

[bobnjo]

Have a nest with four 12-16 day olds, mom dead from entrapment. only one parent left. Will the other parent take up the slack and will they be okay. Can you feed babies that age crickets? Only have 2 unfledged units left, the other one will fledge next week. Most everyone else gone. Any advice or let nature take its course?

bobnjo

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The male usually is not a very good parent. They can successfully feed 1 or 2 in most cases, but often they will not bring enough food for 4 or 5 babies. He will need some help from you if you can. The males seem to be more interested in protecting the babies, not in feeding them.

I had a nest where I noticed that the babies were very hungry. I moved 3 to different nests, and left 2. I think that the male successfully raised those 2, I know that 1 survived.

Sometimes the male will feed them for a few days and then quit.

A am sure that you already decided to try to stop the entrapment next season, it needs to be done.

[Dennis - AL]

Greetings Bob and Jo, I enjoyed clicking through your web site. Wonderful pictures and layouts for the birds. I noticed you only had two racks / 12 gourds per rack. Any houses?

What happened on the entrapment?

Dennis

[rehab]

empty

[landonn]

A interesting note during the last 10 days of the young being in the gourd the male made more trips to the nest than the female. I still saw her regularly throughout that period, and I saw her a couple of times during the young's first week out of the nest.

Landonn

[Suzette McGowen]

I would get crickets and supplement his feedings, we did this last year with a late nest and were quite successful. I would try to feed when the adults were away, the fledglings get used to it quickly and eat readily. The first couple of times are trying so hang in there. We had to gently pry the beck open the first few times. Soon they are ready for you and open wide.

Good luck!

[bobnjo]

Thanks for input. Was grossly mistaken, dead parent was re-identified as male subbie, female doing a good job of raising the kids. As far as, males' death, not the usual entrapment senario we have experienced in the past. Usually the bird is trapped with the wing on the outside and can't go forward or backwards, this one was just halfway out of the opening with wings folded back, not sure of his demise at this time.

As usual, I appreciate the good advice given on the forum which has been instrumental in our success.

Bob

[Caroline94535-ND]

In 2008, my first season here in the new/old house, I had one lonely pair of ASY Purple Martins. They had five eggs and seemed very happy in their clean, spacious gourd.

About a 10 days before the five chicks were due to fledge, the female parent died.

"Dad" continued to feed and care for the chicks. He fledged the first two, and then was run (flown?) ragged trying to fly with them and teach them to hunt, all the while flying back and forth to feed and care for the chicks still in the nest. He continued to carry out fecal sacs and herded the fledglings back into the gourd each evening.

And of course, the non-fledged guys waited about three days before two more of them took the plunge and fledged.

Now he had four chicks in the air and one stubborn little guy that simply refused to fledge. Three days later he was still in the gourd, gaping for food.

Dad finally fledged him, too, and his relief was absolutely palpable.

So yes, long story longer, one parent martin can fledge the chicks. It's not pretty; but it can be done![/i]

[bobnjo]

Nice story. Well, our gal managed to fledge all four of her brood on August 11th. Her nest was about 2 weeks behind the rest and she was the last. Some of the others had been hanging around waiting for her, as soon as her babies could fly, they all left. So quiet now, constantly looking at empty racks.