House Finch ...?

[MJM]

So I have a cute pair of house finches who are trying to take up residency in my martin house I just put out *yesterday*, lol. I know barn swallows are wicked but what about house finches?

[Zheeeem]

Every year I have several house finches that hang out on the perch bars over my T-14. There are occasional squabbles, but no serious problems. And, so far, no efforts to nest in the cavities.

[flyin-lowe]

Barn swallows are no problem at all to martins, did you mean tree swallows.

[MJM]

Thanks guys, I hate chasing any native birds out (well, except Starlings because they are not supposed to be here!).

Yes Lowe, I meant Tree Swallow (had to look it up). Had some last year in one of the gourds and they were just plain evil to the Martins- bombing them, taking them to the ground even. I didn't want to kill the things because they are just defending their home- so I actually took that gourd off they had nested in and relocated it to a relatively nearby tree. They ended up staying there for the season and left the Martins alone from then on.

[Larry A Kronemeyer]

I always warn Martin owners in our are not to let anything in the houses except Martins. Do not need anymore Hawk attracters. Especially over the winter, everything is plugged, covered or brought inside. Someone asked once but the Martins aare not here, and the answer is the birds here that don't migrate will be here in mass come spring.

[Birdiegirl]

Hi MJM,

Without an established martin colony, we've always had tree swallows show up ahead of purple martins where I live. Not sure what to expect this year- tree swallows may arrive at around the same time as any martin scouts that return (fingers crossed). We try to offer several other nesting options for the bluebirds and tree swallows to use. There was a helpful document I found through this forum that talked about offering other housing for the tree swallows, and how to place it relative to the martin housing:

https://www.purplemartin.org/uploads/me ... cy-377.pdf

Basically- get the tree swallows to use the housing you want them to (close to, but not IN your martin housing), and they become your allies in running other tree swallows off... leaving the martin housing strictly for the martins. We tried these suggestions last year and tree swallows and martins co existing without much trouble.

Hope this helps. Good luck this year!

[Whippy]

Hey, you guys.

In addition to BG's advice, Here's another tree swallow piece. Chuck describes how he moves his swallows away from the Martins. Here's a read on how he does it.

http://chuckspurplemartinpage.com/movingts.htm

Looks pretty easy.

Coolwhips