While doing a nest check today I discovered a dead adult male with its head poking out of a natural gourd with an excluder tunnel entrance. The body was still warm and limp but no obvious mark on it besides sunken eyes. It looked perfectly healthy. Could there have been some struggle over the gourd. It was pointed at an odd angle .
Nest check in 5/31 revealed 1 egg and today was 4 eggs. I waited to see if the female might return. Didn’t see her after about 45 minutes. Any thoughts?
Dead Adult Male
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malachy cleary
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:01 pm
- Location: cold spring n.y.
- Martin Colony History: First breeding pair in 2011. Site moved up hill 350 feet at beginning of nesting season
2019 to accommodate road construction.
Colony seems to have weathered the upheaval
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Rediwill
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2016 12:06 pm
- Location: fredericksburg, va
- Martin Colony History: 2016 6/1 Pole put up late due to HOA . Had visitor birds but no pairs that stayed.
2017 3/1 visitor birds but no pairs that stayed.
2018 3/1 visitor birds but no pairs that stayed.
2019 3/1 visitor birds but no pairs that stayed. Brothers Martins didn’t show up at all at his pole 10 miles away.
2020 7/30 Had 3 pairs, 1st- 5 eggs/ 2nd hatched 2 fledged, 2nd - 5 eggs/ 2-5 hatched fledging. 3rd formed late July and no nest built.
2021 3/1 no pairs returned. One lone male hung out few days then left. Weather was bad.
2022 6/1 one pair all four eggs that hatched fledged. I’ve had 6-8 visitors.
2023 6/15 Eleven pairs 4-6 babies per nest. 51 babies total hatched. Will start fledging July 4th until end of July. I am in total shock.....Wow
not much to say about the causes of that since I am new myself and I would assume heat or wing entrapment or a fight with another male or starling. Do you have other nests that you could put those eggs in? I am not sure what everyone's thoughts are on that but if there are any small clutches of eggs I might add to those with the eggs from that dead males gourd. It will be very hard for the solo female to feed for them alone from what I have read. I have seen were a male will mate with two females and have to split up his time helping them both but one female always gets less help and those chicks are more at risk. I would mark the eggs and then place one/two each in a few other nests to try to save your fledgling survival count. I would try to keep it 5 or less per gourd. It might be worth a shot. If not you can just dispose of them and see if the female tries with another male and lays a late clutch. I heard that happens if things are bad early in the season and there is time to lay again. Maybe only adult females do it but not sure.
Red
Red