Date: 7/3/26 6:12 am From: Steve Hampton via groups.io <stevechampton...> Subject: Re: [centralvalleybirds] Purple martins in the Valley again?
I'll add a few more observations from the Pacific Northwest.
- There are lots of Purple Martins but they are largely limited to using
artificial nest boxes over or very near (within 20 yards) the water (e.g.
at marinas). They are very rare in natural contexts.
- Build it and they will come - when new boxes are installed, they are
often fully occupied within one or two years, implying that there is a
shortage of suitable breeding cavities and many floaters in the population.
This is not surprising, as waterfront homeowners and land mgrs (e.g. local
parks, etc.) readily remove snags. Most of the waterfront areas are
manicured to some degree.
- Starlings aren't a huge problem here. Because the starlings nest
earlier, they are typically feeding young by May 1, when the martins
arrive. At our nest box arrays, we either don't install them or we keep
doors over the entrances until May 1. However, even it we neglect to do
that, starlings are not necessarily a problem (at least in more rural
areas). Some of our nest box arrays are installed and managed by older
volunteers who do not manage to pass on mgmt to others before they become
unable to care for the boxes. Thus, quite a few nest box arrays are
abandoned by their human caretakers. At these, starlings typically occupy
only one or two boxes out of six to fifteen present, with the martins in
the rest. Perhaps in more urban areas, where there are more starlings, this
could be a problem -- though it is easier to find people to oversee the
boxes there.
- If nest box arrays are put up too far from the water, the martins
aren't interested in them and the boxes may be used by House Sparrows
and/or starlings.
- Kestrels and merlins (we have local nesting black merlins here) are
not too much of a problem either. A colony of 6 pairs of martins seems to
be sufficient for them to gang up and attack and chase away a merlin (yes -
I've witnessed that).
- Because neonic pesticides are largely confined to commercial ag (with
most use in the Corn Belt and in Calif's Central Valley), it does not seem
we have that problem here, though it is difficult to tell. For more on how
neonics are wiping out even American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds in
the Corn Belt, see eBird trend maps, which I summarize at my Substack post
here: *Silence in the Corn Belt
<https://substack.com/@schampton/p-192908892>*.
I'm not sure if any of this is helpful for the Central Valley.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2026 at 10:42 PM Dan Airola via groups.io <d.airola=
<sbcglobal.net...> wrote:
> Translocation won’t solve the underlying problem of lack of sufficient
> insect populations. It could also mess up the genetics. Permits would be
> required and almost surely wouldn’t be granted.
>
> Populations, although local, appear to be pretty healthy in the coastal
> forest region (Marin north to Del Norte county).
>
> The real solution seems to be to further restrict neonicotinoid pesticides
> and let the prey base recover, and the martins will follow. Remember that
> Sacramento had the largest colonies in western North America in the early
> 2000s, decades after starlings were established as breeders there. If we
> don’t lose the tenuous source population and bring the insects back, it
> could happen again. But starling competition would still be a problem in
> rural areas that support more starlings. There it will take a gradual
> expansion to starling proof nest boxes from the few source populations, a
> multi-decade proposition
>
> Well that’s probably enough about martins for the next year or so!
>
> Dan Airola
> Conservation Research and Planning
> <d.airola...>
> 916/494-1283
>
>
> On Jul 2, 2026, at 7:20 PM, Larry Montgomery via groups.io <telemark22=
> <sbcglobal.net...> wrote:
>
>
> If Puget Sound is the closest healthy population, do you assume capture
> and reintroduction would be necessary? Otherwise, I would think it would
> be good to have similar safe spaces constructed continuously down through
> Oregon and Northern CA. That would be worthwhile, but a very slow way to
> bring them back, which is, indeed, a worthy goal.
> Larry Montgomery
> Sacramento (but sweltering in Maine at the moment)
>
>
>
>
