Looks to me like they are confused and almost attempting to feed the babies. Only one scene near the end looked rough, but it they wanted to harm those babies, they sure could have.
A subadult threw three hatchlings from our purple martin house just this last season. One was still alive on the ground so we kept it in a warm room in a flowerpot with a towel over night and gave it to a wildlife rehabber the next morning. So happy the little one pulled through! (PS, if you find dead animals like the chicks we found in your yard, just put them off to the side so other animals can eat them! don’t throw them away! usually they’ll be gone after a few days and another local critter has had a nice meal. Something bigger than a baby animal I would probably drive to a forest and leave for the critters there to eat so I don’t have to deal with the smell)
The young male is likely related, one of last year's offspring or a second 'mate' to the female, one who didn't father the eggs but won over the female's affections enough to get close on a regular basis. - theory-
I mean all he did was lightly peck them. I'm sure they al survived. Atleast it's not barn owls where previous seasoned owls kill and eat their brothers and sisters from a new clutch
That bird seemed extra bitter that he doesn't get to be a lazy kid anymore and was taking his aggression/jealousy out on the babies. He was so salty when mama bird ignored him and started feeding the babies, that's when he started pecking them.
Don't anthropomorphize birds. Trust the title of the video. PMCA has experts who have been observing Martin behavior for decades. This is competitive bird behavior, which is sometimes violent. Male Martins do a lot of atrocious things, including raping and even gang raping, sometimes injuring and killing females. They have the drive to mate, sometimes at any cost, even if sometimes that is counterproductive and a female dies. Not all males are like this, but some are. I'm not an ornithologist, but I believe it's extremely unlikely that this is an instance of a bird having parent issues. It's just the brutal part of nature. And it's not just the males in a species. Female horses will kill another mare's foal to give their own foals a better chance to survive. Nature can be violent. We think of it as lovely, but it's not always so. It's sometimes a vicious and battle for survival. It's fascinating to observe our Martins, and we adore them! But sometimes there are some horrible things they do to each other which we might not be aware of.
I believe that both PMCA and Adilah O are simply interpreting the video from two different perspectives. The beginning title cards were the best scientific theory from a biological survival point of view to explain this behavior. Adilah O is contemplating possible motivation for the birds behavior. Science doesn't normally deal with topics of motivation due to it being subjective. What Adilah O said won't be acceptable in a scientific journal or educational material. But in a RU-vid comment, I believe is fine.
Wow no way, that was so unbelievably distressing, I can’t believe he pecked their backs a few times! Jesus thank you so much for letting us know how difficult that was to watch! Oh my I’m shook...
Great video. We had purple Martins when I lived in Iowa as an kid. Hotel boxes for them. Lived on a lake. Great bug catchers. You could just see the evil eye in that Male bird. Probably a juvenile from the year before?
Attacks were more like annoyances, like a big kid moving around and pinching the little kids. Bird tried to cover up the camera with part of the nest LOL but that didn't work
4 года назад
It was such a brutal attack to be honest. No remorse no mercy only blood blood and once again blood
Yeah purple Martins are the largest swallow in North America. They were going extinct because of European Starlings being introduced so lots of people started making artificial houses for them out of gourds like the native Americans used to do. The natives did it to encourage them to nest around their camps because they are a natural type of insect control.
Adilah O, thank you immensely for that info. I've seen several of such artificial nests, which I'd never really thought anything of; but now I know better. Aww, I love swallows!! Very beautiful and precious birds.
Around some of the lakes in Iowa people put up purple martin houses. They look like a bird hotel. We always had one. Helps them and us by keeping bugs away.
ThePainCadet no, all six nestlings successfully fledged (left the nest) and then returned there to sleep for a week or so. After that they began the long migration down to Brazil.
I Think He Lost His Mate And Chicks Now He's Grieving And Don't Know What To Do He Was Torn Between Feeding Them Or Killing Them🤦🏽I Hope He Found A Widow Bird With Chicks To Feed And She Took Him✨✨🙏🏽👍✨✨
Matt D What if you were one of those chicks & felt the pain of those bites from it, it wants them dead to bring the female bk on heat again, as with male Lions, that certain birds did this I didn't know, Might be some new info on how certain preditory dinosaurs might have been to youngsters that lived in familly groups as we know now with some ie giant T.rex & the small Troodon, both the smartest dinosaurs for their size!🌳🐊
