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Originally Posted by lis
We have a Martin house in our yard, but the martins have chosen to build their nest right by our front door! Instead of Martins in our martin house we have kind of grayish birds with red chests, quite small birds. I'm not sure all all what they are, just got into birds when we were graced with our Martins.
Anyway, I would really appreciate any info on these birds.
thanks,
lis
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Do they have a short, straight beak or a longer, curved beak? Do you know what a house finch looks like (
here's a house finch)? Is this bird smaller than a house finch or house sparrow?
House sparrows and starlings (black birds larger than a Northern mockingbird but smaller than a great-tailed grackle, with tiny white speckles on their backs, medium-sized straight beaks) should both be kept AWAY from your purple martin house. You'll want to learn what their nests and eggs look like so you can remove their nests if they do set up residence. Neither house sparrows nor European starlings are native to the United States and they both are predators/opportunistic species to the purple martin -- they will peck holes in purple martin eggs and they will kill purple martin hatchlings and fledglings.
However, neither of these species look at all like what you describe, so I asked for some more info to determine if perhaps you have a type of wren or something else that is living in the house.