Purple Martins

The other day I put up our martin houses.  I have two poles with twelve plastic "gourds" on each pole.  I know that, when we return from South Texas in early March, its time to get the martin houses up, even if I haven't seen any of the birds.  Sure enough, I got the gourds on the first house and before I could get the second one up, there were martins sitting on the first one!

Were they just lurking around somewhere out of sight, waiting for me to get their houses put up?

Martins are part of the swallow family and among that family's largest members.  They are migratory birds and spend their winters in South America, returning to our area in the spring.  Interestingly, they depend almost entirely on humans for their nesting places, using only gourds or houses put up by us.  They do have several enemies, including starlings, sparrows, snakes and hawks, and I have fought them all.

I used to have the familiar hexagonal houses with round entrance holes in them.  The starlings loved these things and I couldn't keep them out.  The gourds I use now are equipped with starling resistant entrance holes, or SREH.  These holes are slightly smaller than a semi-circle and the dimensions are critical to keep starlings out and let martins in.  The change to these gourds did solve the starling problem.

Sparrows are not so easy.  They, like starlings, are prone to evict martins and take over their houses.  About the only way to keep them in check is to clean out their nests on a regular basis.  The use of gourds does make it harder for snakes and hawks to attack them but I have seen it happen.  In fact, one night I caught a snake which had climbed the steel pole and gotten his head into the opening of one of the gourds.

For decades we were told that the martin was a mosquito eater and, because of that, we should do all we can to keep them around.  That story has been almost completely debunked now - martins do eat flying insects but mosquitoes are a small part of their diet.  In spite of that fact, the martin is a very gregarious creature and I love to watch them fly, sing, and interact with each other.  I think I'll continue to be a martin "landlord".