Photos of Sparrow Resistant? Styrofoam Test House

[Bernie Nikolai]

The last two years I've had excellent success with martins nesting in my homemade Styrofoam houses. The northern martins up here on the extreme northwest part of their range very readily accept them for nesting, probably due to their vastly superior insulation characteristics vrs. metal or plastic housing. Only large compartment wood housing comes close in terms of acceptance of these Styrofoam test houses by martins.

I did learn that the only area inside the housing scratched by the martins was the area of Styrofoam right under the nest. So this year's model is completely protected with fiberglass cloth and a coating of epoxy both inside and outside the compartments. I'd say the housing would be about as resistant to hail and bird pecks as a natural gourd would be.

You have probably read that a number of us are testing sky blue and bright yellow this year as sparrow deterrents. So this house replaces a Trio at a buddies place on a telescoping pole. After 3 years the Trio, despite having 6"x12" enlarged compartments, has had only one martin pair, that fledged 5 young, but did not return the next year. Metal housing is just a very poor choice for trying to get a colony started up north, its just way too cold. Plus sparrows are a real problem at this site.

This 6 compartment house weighs only 5 lbs, and the one inch thick Styrofoam of the house and two gourds on top are the insulation equivalent of about 5 solid inches of cedar! The house has compartment sizes of 10" x 10", and the two Styrofoam tunnel gourds 8"x10".

I know it sort of looks like a "banana spaceship from outer space", but it has everything a martin could want, including SREH tunnels (clinger tunnels, WDC tunnels with double porch, and an Excluder 11 with single porch) to keep out the starlings. The bright yellow hopefully will repel the sparrows, we'll see...Access is through the access thread caps for nest checks.

This goes up in a few days. My first martins last year didn't come back until May 7, with the SY birds not arriving until the first week or two of June up here. It will be an interesting experiment, and I'll report back as to how this house attracted martins and repelled sparrows (hopefully) at the end of the season.

[Bob Flam]

Wow! I was almost woke up...now I am

I have had my blue house and gourds up now about a month. There's one pair of martins, maybe 2 now that are interested in it, and thats just been this week.

I did have one sparrow go in it. But I also think it's because sparrows are building a nest in my John boat sitting right beside the pole. They are always sitting on the johnboat and I think the pole finally got his attention enough to check it out. They are building a nest under my johnboat bench seat I believe. Theres also a tarp over the center part of the boat...so it's a nice lil spot for them.

I shot that sparrow and I haven't seen another on the housing yet. Even with them on the John boat beside it. It seems to be working well here. As well as could be expected at least with sparrows right beside the pole everyday!

bob

[Guest]

Hi Bernie,
Very interesting! I do have a few questions.
1: Is there any ventilation?
2: Is there any drainage?
3: How would high winds affect it? (tearing it off the pole or damaging the unit)
As I understand it, these are mandatory criteria in martin housing.
I do like the insulation and weight qualities very much. Thanks so much for sharing and for making my wheels to start turning this morning.
I'll watch for your results at the end of the season.
.....Tom

[The Olsons]

Bernie,

This is a good looking house and it looks very solid.
I had the same questions as Tom...
Please keep us posted.

Astrid

[Guest]

I'm sorry, Bernie, it's interesting, but butt ugly!!!

If you took those gourds off the top and and made it a two story square house instead, and painted it white, then it would look more like a martin house and less like a "martian house" as you alluded to yourself, LOL. If you're being bothered that much by sparrows, you could put some mylar sparrow spookers on top after the martins get committed to the sight.

Just trying to help.

Penny

[Dave]

Sunday, Morning critics are a dime a dozen, Bernie. Keep up your great R&D work.

[Bernie Nikolai]

Hi dadtom, to answer your questions:

1/ Since in my climate the maximum summer temperature only hits as hot as 90F every second year, I don't drill ventilation holes in my Styrofoam housing. The air is exchanged well through the entrance hole. But most folks in warmer climates would simply drill 3 or so 1/4" holes along the roof of each compartment. Cold, not heat, is my problem up here. I've had many dozens of pairs successfully fledge full broods the last 3 years with this kind of housing in Alberta with none lost to heat or cold.

2/ There is no drainage as the housing is completely and totally waterproof, except for the entrance hole. The fiberglass cloth/epoxy is the same material used to put on the bottom of boats, so there is no need to worry about it leaking. If you live in a very wet, rainy area, and are concerned about water getting into the entrance hole in large amounts, you would modify the housing to get drainage. So far every compartment has been bone dry over the years, and we do get some humdinger prairie thunderstorms up here.

3/ With the fiberglass cloth/epoxy, these houses are very sturdy, and I think I could even stand on them (very carefully) and they wouldn't break. The fiberglass cloth/epoxy makes for a very strong, almost "bullet proof plastic" kind of coating. My oldest Styrofoam houses are three years old, and still look brand new. While very lightweight, they DO have wind resistance. They have been fine on 4"x4" by 16 ft. wooden poles. If the Trio pole experiences too much wind resistance due to the bulk, for this test house only I'll attach guide wires (I know this is not recommended, but I might do it this once if necessary for the test).

Penny, I fully agree this particular house won't win any beauty contests My previous Styrofoam houses are much more traditional in shape with pointed roofs, etc. But the main point was to test the bright yellow for sparrow resistance while offering large starling resistant compartments for the martins, and I put the two Styrofoam gourds on the top as an afterthought to increase the compartments from 4 to 6. The martins will have to put up with an ugly house this year. Its for science after all

Anyone interested in building a Styrofoam house can do a search on this forum under "Styrofoam" and get all the information they want. Also there was an article in the Fall 2006 Purple Martin Update with photos on building Styrofoam houses.

[Guest]

Bernie you are such a gentleman. Sorry, i did wake up in a bad mood. Typical day, actually.

I know it's for a good cause. Good luck with your experiment.

Penny

[Carlton]

LOVE IT! It would have to make any self respecting martin feel good. Nice contrast too with the purple and yellow.

Carl

[JoLita]

Bernie,

I really, really like it! Best of luck and hope your experiment is successful.

Jo Lita

[Bob Buskas]

Bernie, if you put it on a high enough pole, people may mistake it for a UFO or the International Space Station Will be interesting to see if the Sparrows stay away. I'm betting not, those Rats will nest in anything. But certainly no harm in R&D as Dave said. Keep it up.

[The Olsons]

What does R&D mean....?

Astrid

[Bob Buskas]

R&D ....Research and development.

[Scully]

Bernie, FWIW I have yet to see a sparrow enter any of our bright yellow gourds.

For that matter our totally blue gourd set out at the nature preserve is still sparrow-free ( and martin free too ).

I have posted here about the failure of our sky-blue gourds to repel sparrows, but they were mixed in with white or unpainted gourds of identical designs.

Our blue awning DID finally get infested with sparrows after remaining sparrow free for longer than it would have otherwise. I'm woneering if many of those sparrows had nested there in previous years.

Sooo... the jury is still out.

Mike Scully

[The Olsons]

Bob,

Thank you

Astrid