A message from Songbird Essentials to all Excluder Gourd Customers

[Forum Admin]

Songbird Essentials shared a letter to Excluder Gourd customers:

To All Excluder Gourd Customers,

As a company, Songbird Essentials would like to apologize, as some of the gourds recently produced were not up to the standards of being a partnered PMCA product. As we have been made aware, some gourd entrance hole sizes were not the correct size and slightly smaller than what they should be. We were made aware of a similar issue last year, and through mold improvements and new quality control procedures, we thought we had the issue under control, but some gourds were shipped within the past three months that did not meet the standards, which is a failure on our end. I want to make it clear this is no fault of the PMCA, as they have no control of the manufacturing process or quality control process. We take full responsibility for the issue and understand its importance and are working with the manufacturer and reviewing our own internal processes on checking and if need be, correcting the entrance hole sizes.

All gourds we manufacture here in the US are packaged and sold at a breakeven price because like the PMCA, as a company we are dedicated to the conservation of Purple Martins, with the goal of growing the overall population in North America. We partner with organizations and schools nationwide to donate dozens of gourds annually, as well as numerous metal houses and pole systems to help achieve this goal.

We will continue to work with our manufacturer to improve the production process so that standards are met and will refine our quality control processes to catch any gourds that do not meet the standards. We will continue to strive to make a product that is worthy of a relationship with the PMCA.
If martins have been successfully entering your gourds, they are unaffected and do not need to be measured. If you have new gourds or ones that have never had martins entering them, as precisely as possible measure the entrance height at its tallest point. For starling resistant entrances, the minimum height is 1 3/16”. For round holes, the minimum diameter is 1 3/4”.

If you have found you have one of the four styles of Excluder gourds that the entrance hole is not up to standard you may carefully trim or sand them to the proper dimensions. Alternatively, please reach out to us at 1-800-269-4450 or send us an email at [email protected] and we will send a replacement gourd(s) at no charge.