Colony die off

[lesleym]

We lost what appears to be our entire colony in Jackson, MI (estimate 12 to 18 mature males and females) due to disease within the past 72 hours. All of the birds had severe, possibly blood tinged, diarrhea and loss of coordination. All nests in the gourds looked normal (except for a large amount of straw, which we have never seen before and don't know where they got), most with 1-5 eggs, none hatched yet. No parasites and no signs of predation. No severe weather events recently in our area. Very sudden onset; colony was active and vibrant until the past few days. We have had an established colony in a 12 gourd Troyer Horizontal system since 2021 with excellent success rates in the past. Prior to that, we had a different gourd rack system preceded by houses at the same location. We had a similar colony loss 8-10 years ago which was suspected to be due to a widespread salmonella outbreak which killed most of the martin colonies on our lake. There are many Canadian geese in the immediate area, but none of them appear ill. I reported the situation via online form to local DNR but have received no information back from them. Has anyone else in Southeast Michigan experienced a similar problem this season?

[Mstan]

I am so sorry.

[brent]

What a puzzle. I’m so sorry to hear about this. Almost seems like poisoning because of the sudden deaths of all the birds. Was there any aerial pesticide spraying? Interested in hearing from other landlords. Again, so sorry to hear about this. Brent

[Martintown33]

Very sorry to hear this. What aTerrible catastrophe. I hope the officials you contacted will investigate and try to find out the cause.
Very sorry
Rob

[Bird Brain]

What a puzzle. I’m so sorry to hear about this. Almost seems like poisoning because of the sudden deaths of all the birds. Was there any aerial pesticide spraying? Interested in hearing from other landlords. Again, so sorry to hear about this. Brent

Poisoning would be my guess as well. I know some farmers and they do spray some harsh chemicals on the bugs which could later be eaten by the martins. Many of the poisons end up in water systems where unsuspecting martins will drink. Blood in the stool is a pretty good clue of poisoning.

[Jones4381]

A Google search shows you're not alone in that area of MI as recently as Feb 2025 (300 geese and other avians died off) your DNR will (should) provide answers and will test to collect the data and eventually provide the evidence of cause if you reach out...

EDIT (reread your post and overlooked your efforts thus far): Good for your reaching out to DNR online and please do a follow up post to let everyone know how you're doing and what DNR is doing...If you haven't received any electronic communication back from DNR, can I recommend you follow up with a phone call this week.
You're not alone ...It's unfortunate you had to experience this loss but I hope you come out of it more determined than you were before...Good luck to you.

[lesleym]

Thank you all for your concern. I filled out a detailed report on the Michigan DNR site and I have a case number. There is a local phone number posted, but calls are not answered and the message says that the mailbox is full, so there is no way to contact them at this point. We disinfected the gourds on Sunday and planned to leave them down for the rest of the season but towards dusk a few martins were flying around and landing on the crossbars so we put the system back up. It appeared that one of our original pairs returned to their gourd, but that male died yesterday. The female might be dead in the gourd. The other half dozen or so flying around look like SA’s. There are similar posts on the Michigan Purple Martin FB group; no one seems to have any answers. I will report any new developments here.

[mjfog]

I hope you froze a few of the birds - may help the DNR come up with an answer.

[Jones4381]

Thank you all for your concern. I filled out a detailed report on the Michigan DNR site and I have a case number. There is a local phone number posted, but calls are not answered and the message says that the mailbox is full, so there is no way to contact them at this point. We disinfected the gourds on Sunday and planned to leave them down for the rest of the season but towards dusk a few martins were flying around and landing on the crossbars so we put the system back up. It appeared that one of our original pairs returned to their gourd, but that male died yesterday. The female might be dead in the gourd. The other half dozen or so flying around look like SA’s. There are similar posts on the Michigan Purple Martin FB group; no one seems to have any answers. I will report any new developments here.

Thank you for the update and that is so frustrating and concerning... I'd only guess DNR has limited reach as these agencies are pretty thin to begin with and to your point of the FB post around there, pretty busy with other inspections... Always frustrating on full VM and not returned calls. Been in a leadership position in Sales for over a decade and it's my number one rule...return phone calls the same day or immediately the next morning and always clear your VM box before end of day....Good luck to you.

[MY FYN 79]

So sorry to hear this.

Following as I’m curious how the DNR reacts.

[drjaxon]

This is tragic news. I have a new and growing colony on the western edge of Washtenaw County. I have doubts about poisoning. Late this last May we had a week of cold and rainy weather. Sadly, I lost 5 of my martins to starvation. I tried scrambled eggs, but I'm afraid it was too little too late because they were not yet trained on them. I found all 5 dead in different gourds on the same day, just a few days of checking them and seeing all healthy birds. I heard of a colony on Sugarloaf Lake in Jackson County that lost 24 or so martins the same week.

When temps are below 50F and rainy, like it was, flying insects will not be out. The martins will begin to starve after 3 days of this kind of weather. I am greatly saddened to hear of these big die offs. I've been trying for years to attract martins and was excited to have had 10 nesting pairs last year and looked forward to more this year. I'm not sure of the full impact on my colony yet, but of the starved martins 3 were males and 2 females - I'm estimating I had over 20 martins before the bad weather. I pulled one that died right in the entrance to a gourd only to find 3 live ones trapped inside. It was fortunate for them that I checked the gourds that day. They would have perished with their friend had I not checked.

There are many videos on Youtube about feeding martins. I am going to be more vigilant in the future on these cold rainy days, for sure. My condolences. I sure hope your colony can recover someday.

[lesleym]

Thanks to all who replied with helpful suggestions and compassion. Happy ending here: new birds came in promptly after gourds were disinfected and replenished and we recently fledged 26 healthy young. Not much time was lost and they fledged in time to join the other colonies on our lake. I hope everyone had a successful season and I am looking forward to next year’s challenges and joy. Will pay special attention to weather and supplemental feeding in the future!