Purple Martin Management

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Purple Martin   “America’s most wanted bird”

What can I tell you about the Purple Martin that has not been so widely discussed?   We can cover the basics, ASY, SY and HY but if you are visiting my site, I bet you have the basics down.  Instead I’d like to take your time to tell you about my martin landlord years, things that have worked for me, and things that haven’t.  I will also touch on supplemental feeding, a program I believe every martin landlord should became accustomed to doing.  Plus food for thought, which are my thoughts on whether or not Purple Martins actually eat mosquitoes!  So lets dive in and begin…

Like most Northern landlords it took me several years to start a colony.  I am fortunate to have 2 very large colonies within a short fly distance.  My first pair of martins nested in a gourd under an old wooden martin house (now gone).  I had no way to monitor the nest so I cannot tell you how it did except to say I found no dead young.  The following year Robert built me a gourd rack using wooden arms.  We mounted these arms on a round pole.  We had about 4 nesting pair that year, and that’s the same year we were introduced to the viciousness of the starling.  Robert and I believed that theses 2 species could co-exist, and why would they not?  We offered plenty of housing, lots of choices, so why would the Starling need to raid the Purple Martins nest?  How wrong we were.  Sadly, we lost all the martins eggs to a pair of starlings, a repeat that never would happen again.  We have become true advocates in keeping the Starlings and House Sparrows at bay.  We shoot and trap these non-native birds, always reminding ourselves that we never want to lose our martins to the Starlings again.

Speaking of Starlings, if you have a raptor rehaber in your area, contact him or her, they may take the starling carcass from you and put them to good use.  Did you know that in the 50’s the Starling was considered a delicacy?  I can’t imagine eating one, but the world is made up of all kinds of people.  Any way back to martins…

After that heart wrenching first year, we actively eliminated both the Starling and House Sparrows.  I cannot shoot a gun, so I would use the ST-1; a wonderful wire trap that never failed me.  The worse feature of the ST-1 is getting the bird out of the cage.  I have had a few escape over the years. I fill the trap with grass clippings and feathers (never use white feathers, they will draw the tree swallow over to the trap).  If you catch a house sparrow leave it in the trap (with food and water) and generally you will catch its mate.  Along with the ST-1 I have used the wooden nest box trap sold by the PMCA.  (Trivia: did you know that Creative Universe manufactured (we did not design it) this product for the PMCA for several years)  This wooden trap is great for catching the Starlings.  I mounted mine on to a piece of rebar using clamps that I screwed to the backside of the wooden nest box trap.   I installed this trap central to my gourd racks, and set the trap mechanism.  It never seemed to take long.  What it is with starlings and a wooden cavity?  They love them!  Here is a trick I do; I use a wind up kitchen timer so as not to forget I set the trap.  I set the timer for 15 minutes and when it rings, I know to go and check the trap.  That way if I inadvertently caught a blue bird or tree swallow they would not have been stressed for a long period of time.  Both of these traps have worked very effectively by me.  There is also the repeating bait trap that others have had astronomical success with, which I never did.  Sad, because we made these traps too.  Another favorite trap of mine is the UST.  This trap designed by CUE is my absolute favorite at catching House Sparrows in my aluminum housing.  I take the House Sparrows nesting material out of the chamber (in the aluminum house) and place it inside the UST.  If there are eggs, I put them in too.  I place the trap in the nesting chamber; set my timer, and in no time I have trapped the House Sparrow.  I have not discussed how I dispose of my trapped non-native birds.  I believe that YOU will have to do what you consider to be the most humane.  I always think back to that first starling that destroyed my new colony, and remember that these birds cannot live in harmony.  If we do not eliminate the House Sparrow or Starlings, the Martin numbers would be in decline.  How sad would that be?

Now CUE has been manufacturing and designing gourd racks for years.  And there is a plus being married to the boss.  You get lots of free stuff.  Needless to say, I have lots of gourd racks and poles.  But I learned something about having lots of housing: the martins prefer it.  It seemed that the more housing I provided the more martins I have.  We currently have (2006 season) over 200 gourds and housing available for 51 pairs of Martins.  That’s 102 Purple Martins with additional young.  And believe me that can get busy around here!  Yet having a variety of housing, I believe, makes it more attractive to the Martins.  Yes, our martins have their favorites.  They prefer the Super Systems and AAA gourd racks.  But remember, these gourd racks have been available to you only a short time.  Our colony was started using Deluxe Gourd Racks.  Now we need to touch on the land conditions that martins like.  We have all read the dos and don’ts.  You need to know that I fell in the don’t category.  I had far too many trees around, and the closest watering hole was the neighbor’s pond, yet I still had nesting martins.  Why?  I believe that it had to do with the quantity of housing made available, located in different flight paths.  I have since realized what the martins prefer here at my site, and have re-structured my layout.  Not every landlord has lots of acreage for their housing.  You may live in suburb that allows you only one gourd rack, and you will need to get the most mileage out of the space you have.  Here are my suggestions:  If you have the space I would recommend 2 to 3 gourd racks of various styles.  If you have limited space, perhaps one large gourd rack will suffice. 

The Pros and Cons.  Offering a variety of gourd racks along with a variety of gourds will increase your chances of having a colony.  Purple Martins will always choose a natural gourd over a plastic gourd.  I suggest to those who are staring a colony to provide a variety of gourds.  I would suggest if you had a 12 unit Deluxe Gourd Rack, to offer at least 4 - 6 natural gourds.  You will notice that your older more experienced Martins (ASY’s) will choose natural gourds.  If you are lucky enough to live in areas where you can pick your own gourds you want to find gourds that are at least 10” in diameter, with thick shells.  My favorite gourds are “kettle” or “penguin” which allow you to hang the gourd horizontally.  If you need to purchase natural gourds I use Gourd Gracious.

Gourd Prep:  we are fortunate to have a power washer, so we clean our gourds using the power washer.  I have spent many years sanding the exterior of gourds, it’s a dirty, dusty, time consuming job.  Once you have your gourd prepped you will need to decide where to place an entrance hole and a clean out.  There is so much talk about tunnel entrances in the Purple Martin world these days.  Tunnels, in my opinion, are the single most important safety feature you can build into your gourds.  Tunnels extend the entrance away from your nesting martins, making it hard for aerial predators like owls to reach in and pull out nesting martins or young.  Top off your tunnel by using one of the many starling resistant entrance holes and you have a winning combination.  There are many Tunnel entrances available in the market today.  The top three available can be purchased from Entrances by Sandy, the Troyer Tunnel, or S&K’s Tunnel entrances.  Each Tunnel has features that may appeal to you, so I suggest you examine each choice and decide for your self what will work best for you.

You can also prepare your natural gourd by placing an entrance hole directly into the gourd.  Round hole size can be 1-3/4” up to 2-1/4”.  The Martins have used these round holes successfully for years.  I would like to suggest that if you cut an entrance hole directly in to the gourd, to place a canopy above the entrance hole.  Canopies help to shed water away from the entrance holes.  Warm, dry, nestlings are healthy nestlings.

Clean outs are very important too.  This idea can be attributed to Andrew Troyer.  We all know we should monitor our Martins progress, and a proper clean out aids this.  I have read about using large mouth jugs, and have a few of these openings but they are hard to do (and I am always looking for the easy way).  S&K manufactures plastic access caps with lids.  They are a good quality and cheap!  I would suggest you visit their web site and purchase a dozen to have on hand.

Once you have your entrance and access installed paint your gourds white.  Use a good primer with paint and you will not have to re-paint your gourds yearly.  We used Kilz as a primer and a quality gloss exterior paint and what a difference it makes.  Our gourds painted with these 2 products needed no touch up. 

Plastic gourds on the market today are designed to be martin ready.  Well nearly, any way.  I highly suggest that you take the time to fill each and every nesting chamber with pine needles, corn fodder, cedar chips, or pine straw, and let the martins finish the nest bowl with what they gather.  Plastic gourds have slippery floors, you can help rectify this by taking an exacto knife and score a series if lines into the gourd at the entrance hole location.  New plastic gourds are being developed that have textured interiors, which should help martins.  Some plastic gourds like the Troyer Horizontal Gourds have tractions mats installed.  Safety to and for the martin is a good thing.  You would feel like a horrible landlord if your martin were stuck in the entrance hole because you did not take the few minutes to score a few lines or double check that the entrance hole is cut to the correct size.

So we have touched on gourd prep, so lets get back to our racks.  We have decided to place a gourd rack up with a variety of gourds in all shapes and sizes.  Now our returning martins are here and as its spring, and we are to have a spell of bad weather.  What are we going to do?  Supplemental feed, of course. 

Now supplemental feeding is frustrating at the beginning but the rewards of saving your colony out number this discomfort of a sore finger or getting wet.  Here is how we taught our martins to eat.  First don’t try to teach your Martins to eat scrambled egg, just wont happen in my opinion.  Break down and buy some crickets.  Depending on your colony size you will want at least 1000 pre wing size (1") crickets.  Place your order for crickets before your Martins return.  When your crickets arrive place them in your freezer, box and all.  I leave my frozen crickets in the box, till I need them, but you could place frozen crickets into storage bags if that suits you better.

When your weather turns (and it always does) retrieve some of your frozen crickets and place them on a paper plate or paper towel.  You can defrost them in the microwave or leave out to reach room temperature.  Never feed a frozen cricket.  Now the martins need to be hungry, so on the first day of inclement weather, your martins may look at you comically as you fling crickets, but still, stand near your racks and using a plastic spoon launch the cricket air borne, (place cricket on spoon head, hold handle in one hand, and gently pull back on the spoon head till the plastic spoon is flexed, and let go, the cricket will be airborne) over the martins head, but never flick crickets directly at the martins.  It takes only one martin to get the frenzy started.  Once your martins accept your flinging crickets your half way there.   Now comes the easy part.  Do you have a bed and breakfast or did you build your own feeding platform?  Lets face it, humans are generally lazy, why fling crickets if we can teach the Martins to eat at one place, and we don’t need to get wet?  Well, how can we accomplish this?  Start by placing a few crickets in your B&B or on your platform.  If your feeding station raises up, like the B&B, raise up the trays with crickets on it.   Stand under or near the feeding station.  Begin to launch your crickets using your spoon.  Try to get the martins near the feeding platform.  Feed less crickets than you may normally, getting the matins near the feeding station to see the provided crickets.  Walk away.  Again it takes only 1 martin to land on the feeding platform.  Once this happens you can place more and more crickets into the feeding station. 

During long cold wet spells, your martins can eat you out of house and home.  That’s when egg comes into play.  You have trained your martins to eat crickets from the feeding platform, now its time to add scrambled eggs. We make our scrambled eggs by placing 6 eggs into a microwave safe bowl, add a little water and whisk.  Microwave till cooked and then chop into small pieces.  Place your scrambled eggs into your feeding trays, spread it around, add a few crickets, and watch your martins.  During long cold spells you will need to fill your feeding station as often as possible. It’s such a thrill to see them eat your offerings.  Knowing that your martins will survive this cold snap brings you great joy.  You will notice that your Martins will even come to greet you as they await your food.  It’s such a thrill!  And fear not, your Martins will return to catching their own food as soon as the temperatures raise and insects are flying.  It is also my opinion that there are now so many of us landlords who supplemental feed that more and more martins are catching on faster every year.

Speaking of flying insects, what do martins eat?  Well here in my neighborhood I have seen them eat dragonflies, damselflies, cicadas, and horse flies.  Do martins eat mosquitoes?  Well here is my opinion:  mosquitoes come out here in the evening, and if the martin is feeding young, they feed the young till they can’t see to find any more food.  I believe it is very possible that some of the food they feed will be mosquito.  You have to judge for yourself.  While your martins are in residence, do the mosquitoes bother you?  Do you see bats in your neighborhood at night?  If no bats, what else would eat the mosquito?  When your martins leave do you feel like the blood-sucking mosquitoes are attacking you?  Only you can answer that question.  What I know is that we are not bothered by the horse flies or mosquitoes while the martins are in residence.  When the martins leave we need to be indoors or wear long sleeves.

Perching and Purple Martins.  Martins are flyers; did you ever notice their small legs? They very rarely land on the ground unless they are getting nesting materials and even then only for short periods of time.  I don’t think that martins feel “safe” when they are on the ground.  Martins do however, love to perch.  What can we as landlords do to help provide extra perching space?  We can supply a perching tree, making the perching tree central to the housing, or we can add additional perch space to our gourd racks.  If you have a Deluxe 12 XL gourd rack I would not worry about the extra perch space, but if you have an older version of the Deluxe Gourd Rack or have a 18, or 24 unit Deluxe Gourd Rack, extra perching is a plus.  It’s so easy to do.  Next time you visit you local home store go to the gardening section and find “bamboo reeds”.  Generally these reeds are about 5 feet in length.  You can take these reeds and place them on top of the gourd arms, the bamboo reeds should be vertical to the gourd arm (lays over the arms) and using twist ties or wire ties, lash the reeds to the gourd arms.  This extra perching space can be so critical when the nestlings fledge, or during the season for the adults to be near their gourd home.  Such a simple idea can really enhance your colony.  Remember to keep in mind that you placed these reeds on your rack when lowering the unit, and stand back an extra foot or two to keep the reeds from hitting you in the head!

If its not bad enough we need to protect our martins from aerial predators, we need to protect them from ground predators too.  A ground predator can be a raccoon, a feral cat, or the southern landlords nightmare, snake.  Any of these climbing predators can destroy your colony in a blink of the eye and leave without a trace.  You are faced with what YOU can do to protect your martins.  There are several choices you have.  First I believe you have to take into consideration what predators you are up against.  Where I live, I need only worry aerial attacks, hawks and owls.  I don’t have problems with ground predators (knock on wood).  That said there are several choices you need to look at.  First there is tube like predator guard.  CUE had an aluminum predator guard that will help protect you from basic attacks (like raccoon and cat).  I have never tried this but read about “electric predator guards”.  The only problem I have heard about these types of guards, is that if your land gets dry you can lose your current, thereby making it ineffective.  As time passes you may find that your needs regarding predator protection change.  As your colony grows your site becomes attractive to hawks.  Unless you are retired and want to camp out at your site, you must be prepared to deal with loses due to aerial or ground predators.  The key is to be vigilant, know what is going on at your site, monitor.  If you are being attacked, you will know it sooner rather than later and you will be able to protect your colony before it is decimated. 

Monitoring your nesting site is THE most important management tool at your disposal.  All the racks made by CUE raise and lower the housing.  YOU need to know what is going on inside the nesting cavities.  Perhaps you have a runt who is being ignored by the adults, or you lost a parent to a predator.  Future generation of martins need our help now.  We need to do nest changes at 7 and 14 days (after the last nestling hatched).  If you find a malnourished nestling, you can put it in a gourd with young closer to its own size, but the best thing to do is to find a rehabber in your area.  Check with local veterinarians to see who the closest rehabber to you is.  You may want to do this before the season starts.  Get to know your rehabber.  You may even be able to volunteer time and learn some basic care you can provide for your own martins. 

There are 2 more attraction aids that I feel will help you in starting a colony.  One is the Dawnsong, and the other is a decoy.  The Dawnsong is a recording of the martin’s vocalization.  I hooked up a CD player to a timer, which was connected to a Radio Shack power horn, which is faced skyward.  I set the timer to start at 4:00 in the morning, and I played it till around 11:00.  I also played the Dawnsong in the evening, from around 7:00 to dusk.  This tool helped to draw the local sub adult martins to my nesting site.  I made my own decoys, but these days you can purchase plastic decoys.  Decoys along with the Dawnsong, makes your site look attractive to overhead martins.  I placed my decoys on perching arms, or hung it to the front of a gourd.  Hawks will attack what they perceive to be the slowest moving target.  A decoy, non-moving, may be what the Hawk singles in on, giving your live martins a chance to escape.  On the other hand, is it possible that the Decoys attract the Hawk?  That’s a question that is still being pondered.  Until proven bad for my colony, I will keep my wooden decoys up.  I no longer play the Dawnsong recording; my martins are imprinted on my site that I feel it is no longer needed.

I contribute my success here to many factors, trapping and shooting non-native birds, supplemental feeding, monitoring, but mostly due to offering a variety of housing.  Here in the north gourds are the “thing”.  Down south, it’s aluminum housing.  I am afraid that is one subject I can’t help you with.  Though my multi-purpose pole has two Coates-Watersedge houses on it, my martins have never even looked into it!  The martins do however use the gourds on that pole.  I hope as you read this I was able to give you some ideas and thoughts, and if so I was happy to help.  All landlords will experience good times and bad.  We do our darnedest, to provide our Purple Martin the best we can offer, after that its up to them! Diane