Purple Martins

[Piedmont3]

Thanks BillG, I knew they had a website, but when I googled it I got all kinds of other junk but not them.
Thanks again.

 

[Geri]

Thanks for the website. I'll check it out. I still haven't seen any birds yet. It concerns me that they are so late. In the past we have turned out about 30-40 birds at the end of the season. We have two metal two tier houses. One oblong and one kinda hexagon shape with railings. We don't have crows but, I swear the roadrunners here are **** on other baby birds! The Martins have been known to chase the roadrunners!

 

[lonesome]

What is involved with getting the Purple Martins to setup house keeping? I have lots of mosquitos, so it just a matter of putting a house on top of a pole or is it a more involved process? What time of year to you need to have the house up?

 

[Geri]

I'm not sure what time of the year your Martins show up.Our Martin scouts just showed up yesterday. The rest usually follow within a week. There are lots of web sites. just google purple Martin and you can find the conservation website among others. They need a broad fly zone so, set up your pole far away from any trees. Also, it will help keep predators away from your pole so, the birds aren't sitting ducks. We have had good success with two tier metal houses with railings. Haven't tried gourds or other material. These are easy to clean. My husband is trying a new technique of opening only a few holes on the house until the Martins establish because the sparrowa LOVE to try to settle in as well.
He used to take the house down and pull out sparrow nest a few times before enough Martins got in the boxes. You should have a water source near by. We have a neighbor with a pond so, they go there I assume.

 

[billbill1]

The martins arrive in NE Kansas around the first of April, my guess for Iowa would be 2-4 weeks later. The birds migrate from South America every year so the farther north you are, the later they arrive. There isn't anywhere in North America that you can't get martins. They resemble the barn swallow in flight and are around the size of a robin. They use mud to build their nest and are very neat and tidy birds. The scouts arrive around two weeks before the rest of the birds and locate a place to live. They do like overhead wires that are within eyesight of their house.

 

[Geri]

I forgot to pass on MacMartinhouses.com is a pretty neat site. I really like their houses as I would be able to raise and lower them myself if needed.