What type of landlord receives the most enjoyment out of tenants, with the fewest headaches? Answer: a purple martin landlord. Today over one million people in the United States provide housing for purple martins, playing host to a colony of purple martins on their property. These colony managers play a critical role in helping raise and fledge new purple martin families. East of the Rockies, purple martins need people for survival. Almost all nesting is provided by humans. The birds probably could not survive without our provision.
As a purple martin landlord, you expand your knowledge of nature as you study the characteristics, history, breeding habits, housing preferences, and challenges faced by these birds. You are entertained by observing purple martin behavior in your own backyard, and you are enriched by the observations you make about your spring and summer tenants. The life of a martin landlord truly is a fulfilling one.
There is nothing like the excitement and busyness that surrounds a purple martin colony. It is fun to watch their aerial expertise as they swoop, glide, soar and dive. I love to see a martin soaring high above the ground suddenly pull its wings close to its body, plunge perilously toward the ground, and then, at the last second, pull up. They truly are superb flyers. Their interactions with one another can be lively and interesting. It is not unusual to see and hear much chortling, chirping, and squawking as martins come and go from their gourd or house. Sometimes there are irritable interactions among the birds. As a purple martin landlord, you get to see it all.
It is believed that Native Americans in the Southeastern US were the first humans to provide housing for purple martins, by hanging hollowed out calabash gourds near their fields. European colonists later took up the practice of trying to encourage martins to nest. The practice is most widespread in the Southern states, where it has been practiced longest.
Purple martins, or progne subis, if you care to use their genus and species, are the largest members of the swallow family. They are quite beautiful. The adult male is iridescent purple. He can appear dark steel-blue, in some lights. The female and immature male are duller above, and have a pale gray belly. Martins feed during flight, consuming a host of winged insects such as flying ants, bees, wasps, flies, dragonflies, and more. Contrary to popular belief, mosquitoes comprise only 3% of the purple martin diet. They are not the voracious mosquito-eaters that we have been led to believe.
Martins prefer to live in open areas, usually near water, but this is not a necessity, since they will travel 1-2 miles for food. You can find these birds in the suburbs, parks, farms, wetlands, river valleys, and coastal areas. Martins build nests of twigs, bark, pine needles, or grasses, lined with green leaves. The female lays 5-7 eggs. She alone provides the incubation, and the eggs take 15-17 days to hatch. The young stay in the nest 25-31 days. Only one brood per year is raised by a purple martin pair.
A martin has many vocalizations, but the most pleasing is the "croak song" of the male. This song has been described as a rolling twitter, ending in a grating sound. I like the description given by Donald and Lillian Stokes, who describe it as "a series of paired notes, producing a gurgling, liquid phrase . . .". Once you have become accustomed to this song, you will eagerly listen for it each spring when your colony returns.
These birds arrive in the spring from South America. In southwest Huntsville, you can expect them right around St. Patrick's Day. One of the most rewarding aspects of purple martin management is that, if they bred successfully at your colony the year before, they will probably return to your colony the next year, even without a map. Arrival dates vary according to geographical location. Northern states receive martins several weeks later than Southern states.
It is believed by many people that the first martins seen at a colony are searching for potential colony locations, and that they will go back for other martins to lead them to the colony - a sort of Daniel Boone of purple martins. This idea of a "scout" martin is not accepted by ornithologists.
Purple martins, as do other birds, possess the ability to navigate great distances and return to the same location in subsequent years. They are indeed terrific orienteers, so they have no need of a "scout". We have personally had martins return early, before we had their gourds up, and they perched on the T-bar of the support pole, looking down in irritation at the places where the gourds had hung the previous year. The unspoken thought was clear: "Why don't you have our gourds up yet? What are you waiting for?" Needless to say, we scrambled to prepare and hang their spring housing. We had no desire to lose our martins to a competing neighborhood colony.
There are three basic types of housing that you can provide for purple martins: aluminum houses, wooden houses, and gourds. Aluminum compartment housing is low maintenance and lightweight but it provides poor insulation, and some designs are not beneficial to birds. Wooden houses have the advantage of providing good insulation, but the houses are heavy, and require more maintenance. Natural gourds are very popular. They are inexpensive, and you can even grow your own. A gourd provides a large nesting space for a martin, so the nestlings have more room. The swing of the gourds does not seem to bother the martins, and it seems to repel competitors such as starlings and sometimes sparrows. With proper care, you can get several years service out of a gourd, and then replace it with minimal cost.
By attracting martins, you will experience the joy of a proud parent as you watch the progress of your martins from egg to nestling, to fledgling, and on to adulthood. I encourage anyone to become a member of this growing, enthusiastic group of people who successfully attract purple martins to breed each spring. There are a wealth of resources on how to start and manage your own purple martin colony. You will find clubs, websites, and national societies dedicated to sharing purple martin information.
Purple martins have had a very close tie with humans for hundreds of years. So, becoming a purple martin landlord is not just a fun hobby - it is a true conservation adventure.