Nest Check Saves Baby Purple Martin

A real good reason to check your Purple Martin nests once a week. Not only is it fun, but very important so you catch things that you may not have otherwise noticed. In this video, Larry just happened to be filming and found a baby Purple Martin on the ground. What do you do? Watch and find out how Larry simply used his records to make sure the baby got back in the correct nest.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Purple Martin eggs
• Purple Martin
• baby bird
• nest
• Nest check
• eggs
• Bird house
• young bird
• Landlord

[KYPurpleMartin]

This was a very hot summer day. If you think about it, purple martins migrate from South American and spend the winter in Brazil jungles and industrial areas. They must be quite accustom to heat. Still, we landlords do some crazy things to keep our young martins cool. These houses do have vents to allow heat to escape, but some landlords use misters to spray water and cool houses. By keeping weekly nest records, I know these young left the nest on their own. Have fun. Peek in your nests it helps

[KYPurpleMartin]

Thanks for all the nice comments...

The metal house is an old favorite of martins and is vented to release the heat. Since making this video several years ago, I now no longer use the round entrance holes. Starling Resistant Entrance Holes (SREH) is the way to help keep out the Starlings that will kill martins to steal their nests.

Good luck with your colonies at home, and if you don't have one yet, get yourself a nice house or gourd rack for next year !!

[angela20022000]

Hello: I contacted you about a year ago when we got our martins house up for the first time, we had 3 couples but only 2 of them got their nests going and had 5 eggs each for a total of 10 eggs, all of them made it. This year we have 2 nests going one fof them has 3 eggs but the other has no eggs and we found an egg in one of the other compartments but there is no nest. What should we do with that egg? Thank you. Angela

[Lassannn]

This is one of the finest videos about birding I've seen on YT. Did you ever find a way to keep them cool? A heat shield, maybe?

[GriffGruff78]

@RatRaceAce I don't see why you couldn't do that as long as it doesn't interfere with the perches or flight paths. Be careful, though; martins can be picky about where they live and sometimes resent anything out of the ordinary. My personal experience has been that aluminum houses, kept clean and oriented in such a manner to eliminate/minimize direct sun through the entrance holes does not get hotter than ambient shade temperature inside the nest boxes.

[RatRaceAce]

@GriffGruff78 : Thanks. The tree was just an example. What I really mean is, can we provide a "sun barrier" over this nest, which can be supported by the frame of the nest itself, without being near any tree? Think of adding another "roof" over the next, supported by the frame of the nest itself, which can take the direct hit from the sun. Have some air space under it, so that the original "lower roof" remains cool. Some overhang will provide extra shade outside the nest. Just a thought.

[GriffGruff78]

@RatRaceAce No. A martin house with overhanging branches can be accessed by squirrels, rats, snakes and the like and it is a matter of time before the nest is raided. Martins are often loathe to inhabit such a house, so you wind up with a sparrow house instead.

[GriffGruff78]

@AZApple Yes, that is an old myth and it is pure myth. If you find a baby sparrow or a baby starling, step on it. Otherwise, the best thing you can do is try to locate the nest and replace the precocious youngster.

[akmark77]

Bless you, Larry, for taking care of these birds. What a pleasure to see.

[johnnyk427]

I like how the birds all open their mouth when you look at them like youre going to feed them. You should bring a treat for them next time, like maybe a piece of pepperoni stick.