Awesome setup!
That photo of the baby Martins looking up at the baby Bluebird is too cute!

Michelle - congrats on your successful fledges!
Just curious - what kind of housing are you using?

My heart goes out to you Trishy. Your descriptions of what you and your birds have been dealing with really hit hard. The USFWS needs to do its job, and realize that there are some raptors (especially Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks) whose numbers have reached critical mass in many areas, and need ...

Hi RAMSMARTINS. Sorry for what you're dealing with. I have a few theories, as to why this happens. 1. The parenting hormone - prolactin (which is what dictates a bird's "parental investment" in a nesting cycle), starts to wane as the calendar gets closer to the latter part of summer. If this theory ...

Lots of folks on here with a lot of experience. I've been hosting Martins for about 35 years. I scaled way back on entering in here on the forum, because other forum members who didn't happen to agree with what I stated based on my experience, would insult me, and say disrespectful things - even goi...

Cool idea! The only other time I've seen adjustable Excluders, was in a YouTube video posted some years, back longtime landlord Rick Cruz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh3j1g-vDw4 To go along with what Brad was saying, in the video you see Rick has his setup to where the plate can't go down any f...

I knew that.
From one Trio fan to another, I understood the method to your madness :-)

Good eye John. Kyler probably cut them at the same height that Nature House cuts them - 1/2" from the bottom. The main reason for this, is to provide enough structural integrity at the bottom of the door, to allow it to still be held securely by the floor clips. There's a good and bad to this. The b...

I don't think there are any beetles and/or beetle larvae that are parasitic to birds.
If they're not bird parasitic, I'd just remove the ones you see and don't worry about it.
I definitely wouldn't apply anything like Sevin, unless you have a parasitic bug concern - like mites, blow flies, etc.

Hi Bumby, It's great to hear from you! That is a great looking design for a house! I'm really sorry you've had such a tough time with the hawks. There are a lot in similar situations. The Cooper's Hawk numbers alone have climbed at a staggering rate in recent years - especially in the greater Housto...

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Great photo Ryan!
I can only imagine how excited you must be!
Keep the updates coming.

I may get flamed for this, but to me flying a drone, or RC plane near Martin housing, is just causing undue stress on the Martins, and getting them riled up for no good reason. Sure the video footage fun to watch, but it's taking the Martins' attention off of the things they need to be doing - not t...

Ryan!!!!! This is so exciting! There are other like myself, that have really been following you and your mission to attract Martins over the years. Your perseverance has been most admirable. How ironic would it be if your SY male starts a colony at your site, that ends up supplying Martins to that o...

That should work fine. The main reason to go with a rope/pulley or winch and cable/pulley setup, is it is far easier to raise and lower the housing, as opposed to a telescoping pole setup. If you go with a styrofoam house, at least it's quite lightweight, which will make it more telescoping pole fri...

Brad and I are on the same page. Like I also mentioned earlier in this thread - matching the type of housing being used to the closest colony to you, will increase your chances. The gourds on a line idea is a really good one as well. You mentioned the nearest colony also uses a T-14. If you have eno...

Birds,
As you can see, opinions vary.
Definitely not an exact science.
Trees and predators are important factors, but had already been mentioned by others on page 1 of this thread.

Brad is correct - when it gets real hot (especially with late nests) your going to have jumpers even with aluminum houses. Aluminum houses usually have a lot of slots, holes, spaces, etc. that allows a good amount of air to move through them, which helps. Unfortunately those same slots and holes hav...

Birds, One thing that may increase your chances, is matching your housing to the housing being used by the closest colonies to you. You mentioned some T-14 houses, and gourds. Get granular - like what specific brand of gourds, and entrance types they're using. Same goes with the T-14 - entrance type...

Anthony,
I sounds like you might have an abnormally ill-tempered Kingbird in your midst.
I would suggest getting a lawn chair, and an ice-cold Big Red, and having a serious one-on-one chat with it.