impaled martin

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rtanner77
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 10:47 am
Location: Georgia/Milledgeville
Martin Colony History: We've hosted purple martins since around 2002 and currently have 5 gourd racks with 22 Excluder gourds, 9 Super gourds, 18 Troyer gourds, 4 Bo gourds, 6 natural gourds, and 3 homemade boxes for martins to use.

Here's a first: a headless martin impaled on a barbed wire fence. Loggerhead shrikes often impale their prey on the barbed wire fences on our property, but it's usually mice, insects, and the occasional bat, but I've never seen this. If it wasn't a shrike, how can this be explained? I'm perplexed.
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"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living." -Sir David Attenborough
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marcus
Posts: 314
Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 10:21 pm
Location: Fairland OK
Martin Colony History: Mom n Dad had a plastic 12 unit martin house with some martins as long as I can remember. In 2013 they had 1 pair. I don't think they fledged any. I then started learning how to take care of martins and in 2014 we took that house down and put up a Troyer 18 gourd rack. We had 7 pair with 28 fledged.That summer I built a T-14 (I was only 12). I was also given 4 natural gourds that I hung beneath the T-14. In 2015, we had 23 pair although only 22 pair fledged young. They fledged 88 young. In 2016, we had 36 pair, 210 eggs, 163 hatched, 149 fledge!! One pair fledged 2 broods. In 2017, I had 36 pair with 35 fledging young. They laid 204 eggs, hatched 155, and fledged 152.

Found a bat that way just the other day. I know that we have loggerhead shrikes around. Thanks for the info. I would not be surprised if it was a shrike. One tried to kill a bluebird of mine in early spring of 2014.
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Site Admin
Posts: 339
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2003 1:16 pm
Location: Erie, PA

That's almost certainly the work of a shrike - Loggerhead in south and Northern Shrike in north and Canada. Martins are on the large size for prey for shrikes, and on closer look, I think this bird is a Barn Swallow rather than a martin. Note the deeper tail fork and the white markings on tail. Smaller birds like warblers would be more typical prey size; shrikes eat a lot of insects, lizards, spiders, small snakes, too.

This photo shows white on tail feathers: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... w_6909.jpg
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Peter Alberda
Posts: 175
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 4:09 pm
Location: Michigan, Zeeland
Martin Colony History: Started with Amish copy of Trendsetter 12 room house, added Trio Grandpa with expanded rooms, and North Star 8. Taking Trendsetter down this spring and adding gourd rack.

I saw a martin hit my livestock fence a few years ago. I could have killed it but it bounced off and kept going. If it hit the barb just right it could impale itself.
2020 - A pair of SY birds with three nice chicks. Lots of visitors all year long.
2015-2019 - A few lookers.
2014 - ASY male and SY female fledged four chicks.
2013 - Several visitors but none stayed to nest.
2012 - Lots of visitors all season long. We had a pair of sys but no chicks survived.
2011 - New location - A few visitors
2010 - First year – Poor house location.
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