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Bird nest appears overnight on top of PM house?

17 years ago

How can a birds nest appear that fast? It showed up on top of my Purple Martin house. My PM's thought it a surprize too. I took pictures of it and then removed it.

Is that possible?

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Comments (15)

lisa11310
17 years ago
Why would you take down a nest before you know what kind of a nest it was? If it was ON TOP of the house it wasnt a House Sparrow.
casi
Original Author
17 years ago
I took it down because it was definitely disturbing the purple martins. It wasn't a PM nest. It was empty and the house is for Purple Martins.
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Lydia 1959...As far as it's known, from decades of research by the PMCA and other organizations, the Purple Martins in the eastern half of the U.S. nest only in man-made cavities, and near human activity. Since the times before Columbus they have "imprinted" on humans. The eastern Native Americans lured them to their villages and gardens by setting natural gourds on sticks and dead trees. They knew when the Purple Martins were near, the flying insects were kept at bay. There is a small scattering of PMs on the west coast, and they seem to be nesting in single family groups around piers. There was a lot of excitement when a colony was discovered nesting in drainage pipes under highway overpasses around the Sacramento area. Still, for the vase majority of the Purple Martins, and the entire eastern population, it's man made housing. You can see the problem since fewer and fewer people are offering, and safely managing, housing for them. The PMs, along with our native blue birds, started declining in the 1950s and were fast approaching endangered status. The main causes were lack of housing being offered to them, loss of wooden fence posts in the case of the blue birds, and the explosion of the imported, non-native English House Sparrow that will kill/destroy any cavity nester, its eggs and its chicks, that it can find...PMs, bluebirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, etc. all fall prey to these non-natives. So, loss of habitat, explosive numbers of non-native competitors, and a lack of well-managed housing not being offered is the main culprits of the decline of our native cavity nesters. I wish you could come visit. I sit under the feeder tree each morning with my tea and listen to the beautiful chatter, chortles, and songs of the PMs. They're here for such a short time, but I try to enjoy them enough to last the rest of the year. They travel to and from southern Brazil each year to raise their families. They come back to the same colony each year. They are magical!
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lisa11310
17 years ago
You put up a BlueBird box and a Chickadee,Nuthatch,Titmouse,Tree swallow etc. shows up you dont evict them. There are laws. We cant even evict the dreaded Housw Wren if it has an actual nest. What makes you think you can do that with a PM house? If it's not an invasive non Native bird you should not be removing nests. You dont even know if this was an actual threat to your PMs. From what I know only HOSP and Starlings are threats to them...well Owls too i guess but you were WRONG to remove the nest.
casi
Original Author
17 years ago
I don't agree with you, sorry. But I don't regret taking the nest off.
litholad
17 years ago
I'd be curious as to what bird would build a nest on top of a Martin house.
dzyg
17 years ago
I too wonder what kind of bird it was. Can you share the picture you took. Was the nest big?

Donna
kendra2003
17 years ago
I am also very curious what kind of bird would make a nest on top of a Purple Martin house. Any chance you could post the picture you took?
Elly_NJ
17 years ago
It's really weird for any bird to nest out in the open, unless it is in a nestbox.
glorybea
17 years ago
Boy, after the smack-down by Lisa, I wouldn't blame Casi for not following up.
lisa11310
17 years ago
Glorybea. It's not a smack down. Anybody hosting PMs is not a beginner and are very aware of the laws. As others have said it is odd that a nest would be built in that location and at the very least the bird should have been identified before any action was taken. It's ok that she disagrees with me. PMrs are very passionate about thier birds as are us crazy Bluebirders and will do many things to protect them. Her disagreeing does not change the fact that ripping down a bird nest is wrong, especially if you dont even know what bird it belongs to. There will be newbies on this site and they should not think that it is ok to rip down a nest.Just wanted to make that clear.
jeanner
17 years ago
Lisa, I'm really confused .... it's illegal and "wrong" to take down a bird's nest but it's okay to shake a cowbird egg? Can you explain that please???
lisa11310
17 years ago
Yes I can and Good point, exactly why I said it's ok to disagree and that PMrs and Bluebirders go to great lengths to protect their birds. The difference is you KNOW what bird laid the cowbird egg. Lets put it this way, you know the cowbird egg, if hatched is going to kill the host birds babies so 1 cowbird lives and 3-4-5 other babies die. That cowbird has laid many eggs in many nests we dont see ....we know this, a whole nest is not lost, that cow bird WILL have offspring. 1 egg not being allowed to hatch is much different than removing a whole nest, especially when you dont even know what bird built it. My biggest problem with this is.... a PMr should understand the challenges birds face from pesticides and loss of habitat to upity people that tear down nests because they dont want a little poop on their porch. You know as well as I do the proper thing to do would have been to ID the bird and move the nest to an appropriate place if nessary. You also know that people who know nothing about birds come in and read these posts to learn, what kind of message is Casi's post sending? I got no argument with her protecting her PMs, just with the fact she did not spend one second to try to let both nests flourish.
jeanner
17 years ago
Lisa, your logic never ceases to amaze me, you even contradict yourself in your own post. I give up trying to understand how you can justify twisting the law to satisfy your desires and then try to tell others what is legal.
lisa11310
17 years ago
Tis ok I don't mind your thoughts one bit. You do not have to understand or agree with me. I just went through finding a nest of chippers being ousted by a cow bird baby, they all jumped out of the nest when I found a baby on the ground and tried to return it to the nest, luckily I got the nest and all 4 babies in a deep bucket (including the cow bird baby)and they all fledged within a few days. I also just went through the nest removal issue at our quaint little old church in the woods, one of the Deacons was trying to remove an Eastern Phoebe nest for "sanitary" reasons. This nest also fledged. Agree, disagree, understand or not, thats what this forum is about. Casi believes she did the proper thing for her PMs and that wont change. It's not so much about legalities , though yes I did mention it, but more about the next person, even Casi thinking twice before removing an unidentified nest.That was my whole point and now I have beat it to death.
cjc45
17 years ago
What a lot of rancor for what is probably an old nest that blew down out of a tree.

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