Q’s & A’s / Orange Starfeeder Platform

By Terry Anne Suchma

Dear Landlords,

Purple Martin landlord, Ed Donath, Arlington Hts., IL, designed the Orange StarFeeder Platform about twelve years ago as a “universal” feeding platform that PMs would easily recognize from the air as a place for them to eat. Being bright orange and having five points, it would be a recognizable object as a feeding station for martins that wanted or needed food.

Why orange? So, it would be easily seen and universally recognized by the martins while flying.

Why a large five-pointed star feeding platform?

So, the martins could land on any of the points and approach the center feeding area without any conflict from other martins.

What is it exactly?

It is about a four foot in diameter star shaped feeding platform, made from 1/2" plywood with a Lexan™ (could also be Plexiglass™) cover to protect the mealworms and eggshells from rain and other moisture sources. It is mounted on a stationary pole.

Where do you place the platform?

Good question! For many years, landlords have been placing eggshell feeding platforms right in front of the colony of martin houses, but many observations from landlords over the years have told us that fertile females are frequently attacked when they fly down to a platform close to the houses/gourds where all the male eyes of the colony are upon them. In such attacks, females are injured, and, sometimes, males kill them in frenzied attempts to copulate with these females. In such instances, the females are knocked to the ground, many times, falling into dew-soaked grass. Their feathers become soaked, rendering the females unable to escape back into the air from their attackers.

So, in my case, I put the StarFeeder about ten feet from my deck and about ninety feet from the colony site. Besides bringing the martins away from the houses to an area where a male could better mateguard his female, it also brought the martins close up to our family’s line of vision in the house and even from the deck when we sat there.

One year, when the Purple Martin Society of Illinois picnicked at our home one summer, martins flew down from their houses and gourds and on to the Orange StarFeeder platform (again, only ten feet off the deck) to the excitement of those who lingered on the deck after the picnic was over.

By moving any platform away from the close proximity of the housing, females are not in the open and subject to the prying eyes or attacks of the males.

When do you feed the martins?

In the beginning of the season when they arrive, you feed them daily to get them familiar with mealworms and taking mealworms from the cups inside/outside the house and from the StarFeeder. When adverse weather conditions prevail, and you have a supply of mealworms (and you should!), feed the martins mealworms from the platform. Those birds that know the routine will eat, and others, particularly the younger subadults, will see what is going on and it will be “monkey see, monkey do!” Hopefully, the dumber subbies will catch on.

From Ed Donath’s personal martin research in1992, a very bad summer with wet and cool conditions for many northern states, we now know that even while we perceive summer as good weather, there are situations that can cause martins and their young to starve. In rainy, cool or drought conditions, either there is not a sufficient presence of flying insects or there has been a poor hatch of insects to support the demand of aerial insectavores’ and their young during peak breeding times. During the early summer of ’92, many landlords lost many nestlings due to the inability of adults to find food and feed their young that year. A Minnesota landlord had a thriving colony of almost 100 pairs, and by the end of June, he had lost considerable numbers of martins, and for the next season, he had only 42 pairs. By the same token, Ed Donath fed his martins and did not lose any birds that year.

So, you can’t always equate the shortage of flying food for martins and other aerial insectivores with cold, wet springs. You can have adverse weather with consequent shortage of insects even in summer. When that happens, it can be disastrous as the adults will abandon their young in favor of instinctively saving themselves.

And, cold weather conditions don’t always happen in the northern tiers either! About four or five springs ago, many Floridians lost their birds to inclement spring weather.

Does the Orange StarFeeder Platform work?

Certainly! Ed Donath has been using it for many years and his birds actually sit on the platform waiting for Ed to bring out the mealworms in early morning. I have been successful feeding martins at my colony in the past. However, you must have patience to get your martins to come down and eat. You will go through a lot of mealworms in this course of action. Be prepared and have a good supply. And, do purchase the mealworms in bulk from a mealworm provider such as Grubco (Ohio) (800-222-3563), Flukker Farms (Louisiana) (800-735-8537) or Timberline (Illinois) (618-997-9311)

Since mealworms don’t fly, martins are not familiar with them. We have to teach/train them to eat mealworms (and crickets).

How can we train martins to eat mealworms?

For myself, what I have done in the past to get my martins to eat mealworms is to provide small “parakeet” feeding cups, similar to the ones you can purchase at Petsmart, Petco stores or Wal-Mart. You want the small plastic cups that have hooks on them, either plastic or metal hooks.

Also, you want to get some Velcro™ tape “with adhesive” sold in fabric stores like Joann Fabrics or any other place (hardware, RV stores, etc.). Black is a good color! Joann Fabrics sells this very reasonably in their “notions” bins. As you know Velcro™ comes in two pieces that meld the fibers together but can be easily pulled apart.

Cut about 1-1 ¼" pieces of the Velcro™ tape and press the “rough” side of the Velcro™ to the back of the parakeet cup and the “soft” side to the inside wall in the back of the compartments, close to the floor. Fill the cup with mealworms but not to the top and press the cup inside to the soft sided Velcro™ on the inside wall. The Velcro™ will prevent the martins from tipping their cup over.

In houses where I have two-room suite configurations, I put the cups in the ante room, outside of the nesting chamber. In houses where I had 12” compartments, I placed the cups midway so that the martins could roost in the back of their compartments behind the feed cups.

Sometimes, I would put the cup full of mealworms on the railings outside the compartments (for those who have metal railings) and hook the cup over the railing on the inside of the porches. The only problems with this are that rain can fill the cups, the sun can kill the worms and sparrows find the mealworms real fast. However, I have done this for some birds that are not readily taking the mealworms from the inside.

If the weather is cold and you are using lightbulbs to warm the inside of your martin houses, the lightbulbs will do two things. It will keep the mealworms alive and moving in the houses while the outside temperatures are cold. Also, the lightbulbs will cause light to leach under the cracks under the walls of some metal houses and the martins will be able to see, and, therefore, eat the mealworms in dim light conditions during the night and early morning hours.

Once you have martins recognizing and eating mealworms at the house, and this is where having landlord patience comes in, you can begin to offer mealworms from a short-sided dish on the Orange StarFeeder Platform. Mealworms are not adept at escaping and cannot escape from a slick short-sided dish.

In good weather, I offer eggshells from the same short-sided dish that is placed under the clear Lexan™ canopy in the middle of the StarFeeder’s platform. One can also place some nesting materials on the platform, but I, myself, would provide a different platform for nesting materials.

Hope this information helps those who are interested in feeding martins mealworms or offering crushed eggshells to them.