Starlings killed 4 adult males

[saltair]

I lowered my gourds with the excluder doors and cleaned out 2 starling nest, this was 2 days ago. Today I saw a dead male lying on the ground pecked in the head. I checked all of the gourds and saw 3 more Adult males dead in the gourds also pecked.

Why were Starlings brought to this country all in the name of Shakespeare. They are killer birds.

I had approx' 30 martins and now there isn't a Martin in sight, I'm sure they will be back but this is crazy.

Last year not 1 starling nest and no dead martins. This year I have had more martin deaths in over 35 years.

[Archer]

Are you not familiar with SREH?? Starling resistant entrance holes will eliminate most of your starling problems and give you peace of mind. A very good investment.

[saltair]

As I said above I have the excluder doors, the Excluder II and the starlings still enter, it's a struggle for them but they can enter.

Starlings always build nest on the far side of the gourd rack or house from one's view. Starlings can also mimic flight and actions of Martins.

[Lewis]

I have heard of this before, starlings breaching excluder II sreh. Does this have something to do with porch hight and ribbed porch surface that gives the starlings the ability to use their legs to push in? Have starlings learned how to raise their wings to enter an excluder entrance? If you raised the porch and made it slick could martins enter an excluder entrance? I know a lot of people have used the excluder door on the trio. How far above the porch is this entrance? I know the trio floor is slick.

Lewis

[Matt F.]

Sorry to hear Saltair.
I know that has to be upsetting, maddening, and stressful all wrapped up into one.
Hope your season is smooth sailing from this point forward.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Sorry to hear that, for martin lovers, that is awful

Hopefully, you can do what Lewis mentioned above or do the following:

1)make the porches nearly level with the bottom of the entrance (level and not more than 1/8in
2)make the porches slick and smooth
3)force the starlings to go straight into the entrance, rather than sideways. This can be done with the Lewis modifications, or by attaching 1in x 1in vertical strips, 2 inches apart on the side of the entrance. If the entrance is much wider than 2in, the starlings can tilt their body sideways and gain entry, rather than going straight into the entrance

The above should stop 99% of the starlings from entering. Its a lot of extra work, but so far some of the mfg people are not doing the above steps. Most of the older housing must be modified to keep out the starlings. Its a continuous effort to try to stop the starlings.

Good luck, and I hope the above info is helpful

[saltair]

It's 7:15 in the evening and the Martins have not returned while a couple of starlings go from one gourd to another. As of now my plan is to remove the porches on one rack of gourds tomorrow.

My neighbor is having the same problem with starlings but he is unable to lower his houses to look inside.

[Mitch Booth]

You have to eliminate the starlings or your martins will leave and not return.

I use crescent shaped SREH entrances and Connelly II entrances and have not had any issues with starlings.

Mitch

[DebA]

So sorry too. Gosh I hope the PM's return. Hang in there.
Deb

[Rodger Drye]

Saltair,
Follow the instructions by Emil and you should do well. PMCA does have a trap for Excluder Gourds. I too had a male ASY bird killed by Starlings. I was using round entrances on THG's. Got a Troyer Haskel trap from Andrew Troyer and caught 3 Starlings out of that Gourd. Also caught 3 more from my NBT's. So I figure they (the starlings) killed 1 of my Martins, so I in turn killed 6 of them... I've modified my Horizontal's to Conley II entrances and purchased WEP's from PMCA.
According to info provided by PMCA WEP's are the same as the Lewis Modifications. If Scott Lewis is reading this I hope you agree with this info. When I receive my WEP's (Wing Entrapment Protectors) I will install them on all my Conley's.

You may consider buying or building a NBT (Nest Box Trap). They are excellent traps for Starlings and for keeping that bird species in check. I've caught and destroyed 44 Starlings since 01-01-2016. I have 2 NBT"s and 1 Uncle Blain's for Sparrows. Both traps are very effective in controlling these nuisance Birds. I caught 40 Sparrows in the same time.

I keep all my traps open all year - just need to monitor them just in case you catch a native Bird.
It really makes a differance when my Martins come in. You can see a dramatic reduction in both those Bird species. And you can see that my Martins are much more relaxed.
Wish you all the success and Good Luck for this 2016 Season.
Rodger

[Glynn B - LA]

The only way the SREH will work against a starling is to raise the porch to level/even with the bottom of the entrance. It can be no lower than 1/8 " from the bottom of the SREH entrance.

This has to be done to save your colony. Even if you have to fix a few at a time, this has to be done emediatly or risk losing your entire colony.


Glynn

[John Evans]

Sorry to hear Saltair.
I've had starling breach conely 2 tunnels, Question.. I've got modified excluder entrances in use as well.. Do they breach those as well?
I've seen them looking but not being able to enter..

Thanks

[saltair]

Happy Mother's Day!

Last night the martins returned at almost dark and went straight into their gourds. This morning the lone starling was back making a nest in her favorite gourd. I assume it's a female, I shot the mate yesterday.

This flying Rat is determined to build a nest in my #4 gourd which is blocked from my view because of the other gourds so I removed the outside/inside porch. If she moves to another gourd I'll keep removing porches until she gives up. She must be full of eggs by now.

The other pair of starlings left when I removed their nest the first time.

Thanks, for all of your suggestions. I'll be needing a plan B, C, D.

[Lewis]

I think a good plan B would be to buy the trap for Excluder gourds.I may go as far as buying a round hole Excluder gourd for the trap.then I would raise the porch to flush or no more than 1/8" below sreh on all the other gourds. It looks like it would be easy to put a piece of sign board (coroplast sp.) over the porch and raise to 1/8 " below excluder entrance. This would make the floor slick. I can not find the reference but I recently read where Duke Snyder , the inventor of the excluder sreh recommends the porch be no more than 1'8" below the excluder sreh.

Lewis

[Cymbalariadave]

Several years ago I had a very similar experience with Starlings killing several of my Martins. I purchased and installed an S & S Controller trap from this site. As I am using natural gourds without the Starling resistant entries, this trap has totally eliminated my Starling problem. I placed it about 50 feet from the gourd pole and close to a pine tree. Although there are many Starlings in the area, and there is little liklihood of eliminating them all, those that come around the area of my gourds are attracted to the trap. Interested in the opening that looks like a nice nesting cavity, they enter and end up in the cage available for elimination. The only downside of this is that it must be checked several times a day while set. If we are away overnight, I simply unset the trap. This thing is billed as a trap for Starlings and Sparrows. I have caught only a few house sparrows,but I have caught as many as 7 Starlings at one time. In the 5 years I have had this up, I have caught one Martin and about 6 Bluebirds -- all the rest have been Starlings. That is about 99% Starlings!
One can purchase plans for building the trap yourself or, for considerable more $ you can buy the kit with all the precut parts ready for assembly. I opted for the latter and have been thrilled with he outcome!

[Doug Martin - PA]

Maybe you should just remove the inner porch. This will create a gourd trap. Without a porch inside I cant imagine it getting back out.

Wait for it to go in. Then lower and spray starting fluid in the gourd entrance and tape the entrance shut. The either will put it to sleep permanently in minutes.

You don't want it going in any other gourds. So don't remove other porches. It is easier to capture in the gourd it's in.

I have had excluder II entrances for years and have never had any breached unless I opened them up a little larger.

The original excluder II gourds had the porch too low. Don't drill holes where the dimples are. You need to raise them all up about a half inch.

Good luck. Get that thing.

Doug

[saltair]

I have 2 sets of Excluder gourds (12 gourds each), the older set has a cap size approx' 1/4 inch smaller in diameter than the newer 2 year old excluder gourds.

The Excluder Gourd insert trap will fit inside the newer gourds but will NOT fit inside the older gourds where the starlings build the nests. I tried reversing the gourds, putting the trap in the newer gourd but apparently the starling trips the trap while struggling to enter the excluder II doors.

I have seen very little of the starling today, but I'm still watching.

[zag]

I've never seen a Starling enter a Conley II opening, ever, never, especially if its mounted right, level with the floor.. Don't care what a starling does, he or she is not getting in, period.....

[saltair]

zag, is this also called the wing entrapment protector (wep) that is sold in the shop of this web site. Will it fit the Excluder II gourds and has anyone tried them?

I realize it would have to mounted correctly, sometimes the martins have to squeeze into the Excluder II openings.

I have not seen the flying rat all day, so far. Again, I thank everyone for their advice and input in my battle with the Starlings.

[saltair]

Lewis, I did notice your May 4, 2013 post and picture of the modified conley II and smooth level floor, Thanks.