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Tips
To Attract
Purple Martins
Lately I've had a lot of Emails asking for a
few tips that might help with attracting purple martins, so here
goes. Most of what is said here has either been proven or is the
results of years of raising martins. Although reworded a little to
fit this space, most of them come from the Purple Martin
Conservation Association. Remember, some of the things said here
might be a little different for your local.
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Site Location
If you are just
starting out and are putting up your housing, think about this.
Martins are not like any other bird that frequents your back yard.
They actually like to see human activity around their site. With
that in mind, start by looking for a place to put the housing
within about 60 - 100 feet of your house. It has been proven that
martins will settle in a site faster if it is within close
proximity of human housing and activity. It has to do with the
belief that human activity will keep predators away from the
site.
The correct placement of martin housing is a real
art. Besides preferring their housing to be placed within a
certain distance of human housing, martins also have very specific
space requirements. The air space immediately surrounding their
housing at the height of the housing should be unobstructed in at
least a couple of directions so they can fly to and from their
housing in nearly level flight. There should be no trees taller
than the martin house within 60 feet. In fact, the farther the
martin house is placed from trees the better. If your yard
violates this 60 foot rule, try mounting the housing higher
relative to the trees, moving the martin house to a more open
area, or, as a last resort, cutting down one or more trees.
Remember this one thing.
Trees and purple martins do not
go together.
The single biggest reason people fail to
attract martins is that they place their martin housing
incorrectly within their yards, or their yards are inappropriate
martin habitat to begin with.
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How High
Martins will settle in
housing that is placed between 12' and 20' high. They have been
known to nest higher, but for the average site, anything between
the two numbers mentioned will work just fine.
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Predators
Definition of a
predator: Any animal, bird or reptile that will take either the
eggs, young or mature birds.
Any site that is not predator
proof will have difficulty in attracting martins. If they do not
feel safe, they won't stay. Regardless of the type of housing you
have and the type of pole it is mounted on, make sure it has a
good working predator guard. One raid by a predator and the site
will be abandoned and the birds will not return. If the birds have
not settled in yet, they will look the place over very intently,
and if they do not feel safe, then they will leave. Predator
guards are cheap and are well worth the money and effort to
install.
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Competitors
The above also goes for
any other species of birds that take over the site and the nesting
cavities. If ANY other species is allowed to settle into a
martin house before martins have established themselves, that site
will rarely attract nesting martins. This is because birds set up
territories around their nest sites and defend then against other
birds. These nest site competitors, usually starlings and
sparrows, will aggressively repel any martins that might come
searching for nesting sites.
Martins are easily repelled
from entire houses at un-established sites by aggressive actions
of nest site competitors. Why? Because if a martin has never
nested at a particular site before, it hasn't developed a site
tenacity there. Without site tenacity , a martin is easily
repelled. In contrast, once a martin has nested successfully at a
site it rarely will be intimidated from reclaiming that site the
following year.
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Housing Not Painted White
Although
martins have been known to nest in houses and gourds painted other
colors, white seems to attract them best.
First of all,
housing painted white reflects the heat of the sun best, so
martins choosing white housing lose fewer nestlings to heat
stress.
Secondly, white highlights the darkness of the
entrance holes best, making the cavities more conspicuous to
searching martins.
And finally, white is believed to best
enhance the male martin's courtship display.
Because of
all these advantages, natural selection (and or behavioral
imprinting) seems to have favored the choice of white housing by
martins.
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Timing is Everything
Don't open your
house too early. Most "would be" martin landlords rush to get
their martin housing opened up so as not to miss the arrival of
martin "scouts" in their particular area. This is 4 - 5 weeks too
early for un-established breeding sites! Contrary to popular
folklore, "scouts " are not looking for new breeding sites to lead
their flocks back to the nesting site. "Scouts" are nothing more
than the very first martins to arrive or pass through a given area
on their way back to their previous nesting sites.
The
arrival of migrating martins at a location is a continual process
spanning 10 - 12 weeks in the northern half of their breeding
range and 14 - 16 weeks in the southern half, with new arrivals
coming daily the oldest martins arriving first and the youngest
last. Older martins rarely can be attracted to breed at new
locations. This is because martins have tremendous fidelity to the
exact site where they bred the previous year. It is usually only
sub adult martins (i.e. last years fledglings) that can be
attracted to breed at un-established sites, because they've never
bred anywhere before and have no site fidelity. Sub adult martins
begin returning to any given area about 4 -5 weeks after
"scouts".
Opening a martin house too early just results in
instant occupancy by nest site competitors, a situation that often
prevents martin colonization at un-established sites. Prospective
martin landlords should not open their housing until about four
weeks after the first martins are scheduled to return to their
area! The only exception to this rule is if a landlord has
neighbors within about a mile that have established colonies. In
this case open the housing just as soon as your neighbors first
birds have returned. There is a slight chance you might lure some
of their adult birds away if your site in far superior to
theirs.
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Vines and Shrubs Under the Pole
Unoccupied martin housing that has tall bushes and shrubs
around the bases of the pole, or vines growing up the pole, will
rarely if ever, attract breeding martins. Martins tend to avoid
such housing as it is much more accessible to predators, such as
cats, raccoons, snakes and squirrels. The solution is simple,
remove the offending vines, bushes, or shrubs.
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Housing Really Not Built to Specifications
Many of the published plans for martin housing and a
few of the commercially manufactured houses are made to improper
dimensions. Even some plans published in major encyclopedias,
popular bird books, or by state and federal wildlife agencies are
incorrect. If you consult ten different sources you'll often find
ten different recommendations. Part of the problem is that no one
has ever scientifically tested the martins exact nesting
requirements and preferences until now. The Purple Martin
Conservation Association is currently conducting such research.
Although not all answers are in yet, it is known that: A martin
house must have a compartment size of at least 6" X 6" but,
compartments measuring 7" X 12" are far superior. The entrance
hole should be placed about 1" above the floor and have a diameter
in the range of 2" to 2 1/4", although martins are known to use
holes as small as 1 3/4". If your martin house does not have at
least a 6" X 6" floor and at least a 1 3/4" entrance hole, modify
it.
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Housing Attached To Wires
Martins
love to perch on wires, but they tend to avoid houses that are
attached to wires or are placed within leaping distance of them.
They instinctively know that squirrels can crawl along these and
gain access to the house. Never attach wires to a martin house,
especially if they lead to trees, buildings or to the
ground.
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Un-manageable Housing
Most people
rush into the hobby not realizing that to properly manage for
martins, they'll need housing that allows for easy raising and
lowering, and nest compartment access. Landlords need to
vertically lower their housing often, (sometimes daily), to evict
nest-site competitors and to check on martin nestlings. Housing
mounted on stationary poles or poles that tilt down are no longer
practical due to the introduction and proliferation to the House
Sparrow and European Starling. These type of poles should be
phased out by those who currently use them. Martin housing should
be mounted on poles that telescope up and down or raise and lower
with a pulley system. If you have such a system don't be afraid to
lower your houses often to check on you martins you'll actually
raise more martins if you know exactly what's going on. Such
disturbances will not cause martins to abandon their nests or
their colony site. Number the compartments and keep written
records.
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Play the Dawnsong The 'dawnsong' is a
tape of the song sung by male martins in the early morning
attempting to attract other martins to the site he has found. It
can be purchased from a number of different places. Contact the
Purple Martin Conservation Association and ask for their catalog.
Their Email is PMCA@edinboro.edu. Once you get the catalog,
you can order the tape. It can be played for 1/2 hour per side. I
suggest copying a portion of it on to an endless tape so when you
play it, you don't have to go and flip the tape over all the time.
You can let it run for hours. It has full instructions as to when
and how to play it.
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Eggshells Here's a tip. Birds need
nutrients to help harden their eggshells. You can help by
presenting them with crushed eggshells. These can be acquired in a
number of different ways. One, you can save the shells from the
eggs you have for breakfast each morning. Now this can take some
time, so here's another idea of how to acquire some faster. Go
down to your local diner, Hardees, McDonalds, etc, and ask them to
save you the shells from their eggs for one morning. Just bring
them a clean 5 gallon bucket and ask them to throw the eggshells
in it for you. Then, you pick it up at a pre-determined time.
Don't leave them with a bucket full of eggshells on their hands.
Now all you have to do is get them home, put them in an old pillow
case, tie the top securely, throw it in the washer on the rinse
cycle, (do not use soap), then throw it into the dryer until dry.
When done, you have a bag full of crushed eggshells for your
birds. Then you can stick a post in the ground with a flat surface
attached to the top of it and put some of the eggshells on it.
Just beware, once found, they will be mobbed, and that includes
every bird in the neighborhood. If you spend some time standing
near the post, some of the other wild birds won't come around.
Give it a shot. You'll be amazed at what happens once the martins
find this offering.
Back to Chuck's Purple Martin
Page
This page created and
maintained by Chuck Abare
Woodside Gardens
The Registry of Nature Habitats
Copyright 1999 -
All Rights Reserved
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