Another rainy cold day this February 13 gave me a chance to put together an idea I had last year. Since martins are low profile birds I wondered why and if they really need a cavity that is 6 inches plus in height, especially if there could be added width. Many of the natural cavities used by birds are much smaller than I would expect. When looking at a brood of five or six young martins, having a deep cavity gives them extra room to move around and develop. The ChirpyNest cavity is just over 12 inches deep. Natural gourds are always better if they are 8-10 inches wide. To get an 8-10 inch gourd the height is often at least as tall. This may be beneficial for ventilation but with the built in ventilation of ChirpyNest I thought ‘why not have a lower height and a wider cavity to see how they like it."‘
My thinking is that a shorter cavity may give an even greater sense of security for a cavity nesting species like the Purple Martin.
Using some of the material i’ve accumulated from the development of ChirpyNest I fashioned together this prototype that has a nest tray measuring 8.5 inches wide. The tray height and depth is the same but the box height has been reduced by 1.5 inches. The door is turned inside out with cedar strips on each side of the door to fill the gap, saving me the trouble of fabricating a whole new door. The end result is not pretty on the outside but inside is just a wider version of ChirpyNest.
I really don’t know if I will be able to evaluate this model to say if is better or not but one of the parameters I will use is how quickly this one will be claimed. The other will be to study how the young grow and act inside. If the martins do not use it at all then I will consider it to be not attractive to the martins. If it is claimed early , I will think that maybe they like the lower height.
Its always fun to experiment and I will be looking forward to this experiment. I will keep you updated. My plan is to put this house on my round rack. If all goes well I may take the next step and offer this model (in a much more refined design) as a second style ChirpyNest.
A low profile version of ChirpyNest I will try this season
The tray on this prototype is 8.5 inches wide compared to 6 .38 inches on the original ChirpyNest