tree swallows

gray fox · Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:15 pm

Would you have a better chance of attracting tree swallows if the box was at 10 feet instead of 5 feet?

Dave Reynolds · Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:37 pm

... Gray fox ... I never had any luck attracting Martins as long as I had Tree Swallows around.. Not until I keep the Tree Swallows away, did I get my first pair.. Other people will tell you that Tree Swallows are great to have, but get your Martins Colony established first and then allow the Tree Swallows to move into housing at least 40 to 50 feet away from your Martin Colony.. Good luck...

Dave

randyM · Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:15 am

Gray fox, Dave is correct in that inviting tree swallows to nest on your property prior to martins establishing a colony will make it that much more difficult to establish a martin colony....I learned this the hard way. It took me over a decade to get my martin colony started even though the nesting tree swallows at my site only nested in boxes 5 feet above the ground and never nested in the 12' high martin housing. The TS would just chase away any martins that stopped by for a visit.

If you are just trying to attract swallows and don't intend to attract martins, in my experience tree swallows prefer nest boxes lower than 10 feet above the ground, but will accept higher housing if that is all that is available for them to use.

gray fox · Thu Aug 08, 2019 7:56 am

I had 44 martins fledge at my home site this year. Im in my 3rd year. Maybe thats some of the reason it took me 29 years to get martins. I had tree swallow interference . Now the bluebirds take a box 25 feet from the Martin rack. It seems the tree swallows wont the Martin rack. If they can't have it they don't won't the other bluebird box 10 feet apart. I moved the box about 75 feet to the other side of the garden but they never nested in it. I keep the gourds closed on the Martin rack until martins are supposed to arrive. Tree swallows arrive a little earlier than martins. Thanks for your response and anymore suggestions.

Chris B · Thu Aug 08, 2019 10:52 am

My tree swallow boxes are about 4'-5' above the ground. The TS compete with the Bluebirds and TS seem to win out. This year the TS fledged and cleared out rather early. Later in the summer I had hundreds of bank swallows hitting the shallow end of my pond in the mornings and evening.

Swallow Hollow

flyin-lowe · Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:22 am

I have never had any problem getting tree swallows to nest. If the house is 15 foot high or 4 foot high. We might have a higher population then you but I have them everywhere. Last year we had one of those portable basketball goals with the large square plastic base laying over in my driveway. There is a hole in it to add sand or water for weight and I had tree swallows going in and out of that hole which was about 18 inches off the ground, sitting on my gravel driveway. I had to close it up.