Martin Dominance

[marshainpuntagorda]

I noticed alot of nest building and thought be a good time to bring down the SGs and check to see the progress...I had a suspicion there have been alot of territorial fights with Males...there is a different sound when they are just chatting or the "screams" of one being bullied...so I did find 2 dead Martins on my gourd check...One was ASY Male and the other was a SY female...Gourd #23 I am about to condemn, we had a dead male there last year...there are plenty of gourds...too many males, not enough fems will make Martins nasty!

[Dale D]

Sorry to hear of your lost martins Marsha. Same here. Too many males, and not enough females. Hope you have a good season.

[RC Moser]

Are you sure it's PMs that killed did you witness it??? I have never seen PMs kill other PMs at my site.. IMO they don't have the tools to kill, soft beaks, weak legs, but strong wing muscles. If these birds had wounds and blooded I would suspect starling.. Maybe I'm wrong. It has always been starling or rare E.sparrow due to their scissor like beak that killed my PMs. With the dead Female leaves dought in my mind.