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gourd house being ignored

15 years ago

Can anyone guess as to why my beautiful gourds are being ignored? These have been up since January and are about 15' off the ground.

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Comments (7)

bandjzmom
15 years ago
Hi deanie! Well, I have some thoughts for you. I have been trying since 2008 to establish a Purple Martin colony. This is my 4th season trying, and I am feeling lucky this year! I am offering some nice large plastic gourds. I am also playing Purple Martin attracting CD's to try to lure them into the yard. As a result of erecting the Purple Martin site and playing the music, I have ended up being blessed with nesting Great Crested Flycatchers and also Tree Swallows which return each year. I do not allow them to nest in the gourds intended for the Purple Martins though. They nest elsewhere in the yard in other gourds on Shepherd's hooks. So, I would think that one of those 3 species would be the most likey takers of your gourds. The Flycatchers and the Tree Swallows are not colonial nesters, so a pair would claim one gourd and then not allow any other birds to nest there on that rack. Purple Martins are VERY choosy about where they will nest, and they do not like to be near to any large trees which would allow for cover for predators. I'm not sure how close your rack is to any tall trees. What you might try is to play a Purple Martin CD. Maybe you would get some Martins or at least attract in a pair of Tree Swallows to nest. I enjoy observing my TRES. They are comical and tenacious little birds. Hope that helps. You can e-mail me privately if I can help at all.~~Angie
deanie1
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks so much, Angie. Yes, I would love PMs, TRES or flycatchers (which I have never seen), though at this point any NICE little bird pair would do. The rack is kinda close to some large trees as you can seen. So maybe that's the deterent. Speaking of those large trees, yesterday my husband yelled for me as he was out on the deck (sign he sees something!) and there was a Cooper's hawk perched in a very large tree maybe 150 feet away. He was beautiful! (But if I were a nice little bird checking out real estate, not so beautiful...)
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bandjzmom
15 years ago
Hi deanie,
Well, you and I don't live all that far apart, and I can't think of too many birds that would choose a high natural gourd for nesting here, other than the ones I mentioned. I found this web page which lists some cavity nesting birds that will supposedly choose gourds if the height and hole diameter are correct. You can check out the list anyway. Good luck with your gourds!

Here is a link that might be useful: List of birds that
kendra2003
15 years ago
I was just going to suggest that you decide which kind of bird you wanted to attract, and adjust accordingly, but it looks like bandjzmom's link gives great information on that.
deanie13
15 years ago
Angie, what a fantastic link you gave me. Thanks so much. Kendra, truly that's the logical way to go about it. I am not sure why I told my husband just stick them way up there -- probably because that's what I usually see. I just hope something nests there. Next time I'll probably do a little more research and think about what I want to attract first!
burwoodbelle
15 years ago
I have 8 new martin gourds when i put them up I put avery small
layer of pine needles in each one of them.Today I saw 1
martin in and out of the gourds,should I take the pine needles out?
Pat
bandjzmom
15 years ago
No Pat, don't take the pine needles out. They use them in nest building, and they like to see them in there. My gourds contain a lot of pine straw for them. Lucky you!! If they are going inside the gourd, that is a VERY good sign. Start to watch for them to come into your site in the evenings to spend the night in the gourd. If they do that, then you've probably got yourself a colony established!!! I'd love to hear more about it. Please post here, or else e-mail me privately (Click on "My Page" next to my name in blue) with updates?? ~~Angie

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