Attract Purple Martins To Enjoy Their Habits

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Attracting and managing Purple Martins in order to watch their habits will require patience and education, before they nest in your yard and newly placed house.

Locating houses and understanding their habits are important factors in getting these birds to nest in your backyard.

By using the information about house placement, and the martins nesting habits, you just might have a colony of these birds nesting around your home.

With the competition from starlings and house sparrows, it becomes important for humans to do all they can to protect these birds.

Timing and vigilance will be required also, done properly, you'll be able to begin attracting Purple Martins to your backyard.

It's important that you learn all you can. Simply placing a house up may be enough to attract wrens to your backyard, doing the same for these birds will only lead to hatching more house sparrows and starlings.

Getting Purple Martins to Nest In New Housing

There should be no trees within 40 feet of the nesting site and preferably futher away. In the South you can get away with placing your houses within 25 feet of trees.

The height of the house should be in the range of 10-17 feet. Don't attach wires to the house or pole. Predators can use them to get to the birds.

As you begin to attract Purple Martins to your nesting site,

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take precautions to protect them from preadators. Some of the preadators are raccoons, snakes, squirrels, and owls. The use of baffles on the pole can detour predators that climb.

In the South where fire ants are numerous, try keeping a ring of petroleum jelly on the pole.

Adults are rarely attracted to new breeding sites, they return to the sites where they mated previously. Done correctly the first time, you'll be able to attract your colony back and add to it over time.

Typically, it's last year's young that colonize new sites, they begin arriving about 4 weeks after the first adults in the northern third of the breeding range, (about April- 1 May- 1)6 weeks after the adults in the middle of the range,(about Mar.-1 Apr.-1) and 8 weeks after the adults in the southern third. (about Jan.-15 Feb.-15) Since the first time nesters arrive later than the adult scouts, it's best to keep your houses closed until it's time for them to arrive. Otherwise you'll be giving house sparrows and starlings a 4 - 8 week headstart.

Purple Martin migration is a drawn-out affair, with birds arriving for 8-12 weeks in the north, 16-20 weeks in the south.

Purple Martins can arrive and begin nesting up through the end of June, rangewide, so keep your housing ready; don't close it up, or let other birds use it.

Your chances for success will be better if your housing is easy to manage. Click here for a full selection of Purple Martins houses and accessories. Choose a pole that telescopes, or is equipped with a winch or rope & pulley, and housing that has easy access to the compartments.

Try placing dried white pine needles, dry twigs, or straw in an open area to encourage nesting. A supply of mud close by can help attract Purple Martins to nest.

Houses and gourds should be white, or a light color. White housing attracts martins

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best and reflects sunlight. Temperature extremes can be detrimental to the young birds.

The Cavity floor dimensions should be at least 6 inches by 6 inches, but larger cavities 7 X 12 are preferred and provide better protection from predators and rain. A round entrance hole of 2-1/8 inches is the preferred size for the Martins although they will use an opening in the 1-3/4 - 2-3/8 range.

Don't close the shop down too soon. Keep your houses open until late August, as this years fledglings will be searching for next year's breeding sites in late summer.

When you do close down your Purple Martin house, give it a close inspection. Remove all nesting materia and scrub with a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water). Let it air dry before storing for the winter.

Take care of any repairs now so you'll be ready in the spring. If you choose to leave it out for the winter, be sure and plug the entrance hole. otherwise, house sparrows and starlings will begin to use it in late winter, making it impossible to get them to leave in the spring.

This is just a basic guide to learning about attracting and managing Purple Martins. Consider ordering one of the books mentioned and joining The Purple Martin Conservation Association to get the most out of this bird watching experience.

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