Surfbirds News

Welcome or unwelcome?

House Martins breed under the eaves of houses and other buildings. Many people really treasure these summer visitors, waiting anxiously for their arrival in April or May, and marvelling as they dive into their nests, made of mud and lined with feathers. For these people, finding discarded eggshell and piles of droppings under a nest is a sign of a successful breeding season, even before the first begging youngster pops its head out of the entrance hole.

For other people, House Martins are a nuisance. In an attempt to avoid having to cope with a bit of mess, some people knock down House Martin nests – even in the breeding season, when there are youngsters inside. This is illegal. For some hints on how to live at peace with your House Martins, please see note 2 below.

House Martin © Steve Robinson, from the surfbirds galleries.

Having travelled thousands of miles from equatorial Africa and apparently having faced some really horrible spring weather in southern Europe, it seems just a little unfair that a pair of House Martins will find that last year’s nest has been knocked down by house-proud homeowners. If birds can re-use a nest from a previous year then they save themselves up to ten days of work. More information on nest building is given in note 1 below.

New BTO survey

As part of the new national Bird Atlas project, BTO scientists are keen to know where House Martins are breeding this year. They would also like to know whether there are fewer nests this year than last year.

Mark Grantham, who runs BirdTrack writes: “All summer we’ve been receiving emails and phone calls from recorders, wondering where their House Martins are and concerned at the lack of birds at traditional breeding sites. It appears that a few House Martins arrived quite early, in mid-March, but the main influx of birds was a good week later than in recent years. All our birds have arrived now and most will be hatching chicks, so it does look like we're missing a lot of our breeding birds.”

Notes about House Martins

1. Most House Martins breed under the eaves of houses and other buildings. They often breed in groups and nests are sometimes joined together in terraces. Mud is collected from the edges of puddles and streams. Birds rarely travel more than 150 metres to collect mud. If they can re-use a nest from a previous year then they save themselves up to ten days of work.

2. Living at peace with your House Martins: Place a large seed tray on your patio, under the nest, to catch most of the droppings. Then clean it out periodically. Grow a climbing plant, such as wisteria, over a patio door and under the nest, so the plant catches the droppings.
If the House Martins choose a really problematic nest site, put up something to deter them during the winter, in the hope that they will move somewhere more convenient in the spring. It is illegal to tamper with a bird’s nest during the breeding season.

3. To get involved in the House Martin Survey, visit www.bto.org and click on the House Martin link or phone 01842 750050 and ask for a survey form. Volunteers will be asked to count the nests on their houses and to look for evidence that chicks have been produced; discarded eggshells and piles of fresh droppings. Additional nest counts from 2007 will be exceptionally valuable.

4. If you want to tell the BTO about House Martins in your neighbourhood (ie birds that are not nesting on your house) you can ask for an Atlas Roving Record form. Phone 01842 750050 and we will send one out to you. These forms can be used to tell us about other birds too: any sighting, from a Goldcrest to a Golden Eagle, can contribute to the national Bird Atlas.

5. Facts and Figures: A pair takes a couple of days to repair a nest from last year but up to 18 days to build a new one. The female usually lays four or five eggs – and will have two broods during the summer. Average incubation is 16 days and chicks stay in nest for about 22 days.
House Martins feed mainly on flies and aphids.

See http://www.bto.org/birdfacts/index.htm for more facts and figures