In just the past two weeks I've watched as starlings have driven out two
pairs of purple martins from nestboxes in the Ballard nestboxes; only one
pair of martins remains, the only pair that I'm aware of in the entire city
of Seattle. It's very tough to watch as up to a hundred starlings suddenly
go rummaging through the pilings and nestboxes.
I think the problem for the martins was exacerbated by their late arrival in
migration this year. The young starlings are bigger and more aggressive than
a few weeks ago, making it impossible for a few martins to defend their
nests. A pair of tree swallows nested in one of the boxes earlier this
season, when starlings were not coming around so much. As soon as they
fledged, martins moved in.
This weekend I may plug all the nestboxes entrances, except for the one that
still holds the one martin pair. Starlings have just started roosting at
night in the boxes.
But it's good to hear that overall it seems Puget Sound martins are
rebounding from recent decline.

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 West Ewing St.
Seattle, WA 98119

Mailstop: LAB-NR-0100

(206) 684-2344

Visit our Lakes website:
http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/lakes/index.htm


> ----------
> From: Jack Bowling[SMTP:jbowling at direct.ca]
> Reply To: jbowling at direct.ca
> Sent: Friday, August 06, 1999 5:32 PM
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: Starling cavity nesting
>
> Picking up on what both Don and Jack wrote re. starlings nesting habits;
> it
> has become very disturbing to us as more and more starlings have invaded
> our
> property in Edmonds and we have not degraded our natural surroundings one
> iota in the 13 yrs. we've lived here. What we have kept notes on is the
> tremendous increase in starlings and crows and the slight, yet steady
> decline in the band-tailed pigeons and woodpecker species, esp. flickers.
>
> We have fed as many as 37 pigeons shortly after fledging and as few as 8
> during migration. A number of birds leave for a short time if the weather
> is
> very bad, but they apparantly don,t go very far. Since the crows have been
> nesting in the same fir trees and maple trees and preying on the young
> pigeons our population is down to around 20, give or take a couple. (We
> did
> lose a sick adult to a fine female Cooper's 2 days ago too).
>
> More to the point, starlings; when we first moved here in '87 we had no
> starlings that we noticed, but that could have been because it was October
> and maybe they had flown the coop, so to speak. We did have several
> standing
> dead snags of fir and hemlock and one cedar that were riddled with holes
> (cavities) and looked like they had been used for nesting earlier in the
> year. We also later found out that at least flickers were roosting in some
> of cavities because one of the snags blew over in a storm in December and
> the impact killed a female yellow-shafted and a young hibred (salmon
> colored) flicker. They were both still warm when I removed them, actually
> the young one was on the ground next to the tree and a large whole.
>
> Anyway, when spring arrived and the woodpeckers, esp. flickers, starting
> drilling everything in sight we noticed a few starlings watching the
> cavity
> making and trying to seize every hole that became complete. Jump to today,
> we have as many as 30 starlings at our feeders and water holes and in
> almost
> every cavity in every tree! Also this is the second year in a row the
> Pileateds have not nested in our yard even tho they still rarely vist our
> feeders and yard.
>
> To understand how dramatic the change has been we used to often get
> downies,
> hairies, Pils., flickers galore, RBSS and so on. Not to mention both
> chicks,
> nuthatches etc. While we still see all those species and they do nest here
> their numbers are down considerably. Yes, we understand there could be
> other
> factors, but there doesn't seem to be as we've watched pretty closely. We
> have seen the starlings chase and kill many different kinds of birds esp.
> young and harrass the adults into leaving the nest and then the starlings
> throw out the young or destroy the eggs.
>
> Finally, yes they also nest in and around the transformers and lights.
> I've
> cleaned out several nest boxes on the Snohomish also that had starlings in
> them that were put up for purple martins and swallows. In our case we have
> not made our place starling friendly, but it hasn't mattered they have
> taken
> over anyway. For those of you that think we should accept these birds as a
> natural occurance are sadly misinformed. I for one would do almost
> anything
> to rid my trees of these birds and their destructive behavior.
>
> Darryl <birds at cmc.net>
>
>
>
>
> Dan B. wrote -
>
> <<< I wish urban areas and forest clearings were the only places
> starlings flourish. Starlings are cavity nesters, and evict many bird
> species who live in some kinds of forested areas. >>>
>
> Picking up on what Don wrote, there has been a noticeable trend over
> the past several years for the starlings around Prince George here to
> nest in the cavity formed where streetlight supports bolt onto telephone
> poles, also a favorite of W. Kingbirds in the dry interior of BC and
> WA. In fact, in the more urban areas it seems that they now prefer this
> rather than a tree cavity. This appears to have taken some of the
> pressure off other species which would historically compete for
> cavities.
>
> Has anyone else noticed this or is it a local phenomenon?
>
> --
> Jack Bowling
> Prince George, BC
> jbowling at direct.ca
>