Meet the Purple Martins at Hornsby Bend
Austin, TX
This colony of birds has been using supergourds with the standard round entrance holes in previous years.  Starlings were observed bothering the martins, so I talked with Terry Washburn (long time purple martin landlord) on the phone and he offered some advice.  I liked the look of his porched starling resistant entrances, especially since this is a public project and will be seen by hundreds of people.  I also wanted to make sure they could be easily maintained in the future in the event that I am no longer available to take care of the colony.  I was able to convert 6 of the gourds last week, so there are still 6 left on the main gourd rack with round entrances right now.  During this nest check (March 13th), I was delighted to find that 3 of the 6 starling resistant gourds were already being slept in by the martins (see pictures below).  Similarly, 3 of the 6 round holed gourds were being used by the martins, whereas at least one of the other round holed gourds was still being used by starlings (removed the nest once again).  So far this project is a huge success, and I can't wait to get rid of the remaining round holes so that the starlings will not bother the martins any more at this site.

Update 03/15/02  I replaced all of the round holes on the main rack with the excluder and crescent plates.  I also modified an aluminum house to have larger compartments and excluder entrances.

Excluder plate installed in early March

Crescent plate installed in early March
(purchased from Terry Washburn)

Update April 17, 2002: Here is a picture of 6 martin eggs in one of the supergourds:

Here's a picture of some starling eggs found in one of the four remaining round-holed supergourds:

Update May 10, 2002: Here are a few pictures taken by Chuck Simms.
Jenny and Julia doing a nest check
 

 

 

There were 24 martin nests this season, with 124+ eggs laid.
Click here to view the nest data sheet for the 2002 season