Truth on Purple Martins
manage purple martins around your land or home.
For starters, purple martins are not yearround birds in Georgia. They like to spend the winters in warmer climates such as Brazil. They normally will come back to our area by the middle of February and will leave again by fall months. Some neat facts on purple martins are that old birds normally will come back to old nesting sites. The younger birds will need to find a new site. So, the older martins will continue to use an older nesting box or gourd while a new house will be used by the first year martin.
Mengak states that one legend is that some folks think the first birds to arrive in February are scouts looking to see if the area is safe. The truth is those first birds are the older birds with more experience coming back to start a nest. The younger birds will follow later. Mengak also states that legend says if the martins do not come back that something must have happened to them in the wintering area. The truth is martins do not migrate or winters as a group, so something has happened to make your site not as suitable to call home anymore.
In our area of the country, the purple martin does depend on human made or supplied housing. Mengak adds that in areas such as the Rockies, they will nest in old woodpecker holes, but not so much in the East.
Martins are known to be monogamous for breeding season. They will make nests out of material like most other birds such as twigs, weeds, leaves and grass. The female lays anywhere from three to eight eggs that will incubate for 15-18 days. Both parents will care for the baby birds for approximately 3-4 weeks. It is noted that when young martins leave the nest, they will stay in the area for up to 10 days.
Another cool note is that martins will only eat and drink while in flight.
One thing that may surprise you is purple martins do not help you much in mosquito reduction. They will eat insects such as dragonflies, midges, mayflies, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, June bugs, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, wasps and flying ants to name a few, according to Mengak. Mosquitoes are just not on the list of being heavily consumed by martins. There was one seven year study done by the Purple Martin Conservation Association and not one mosquito was found in the diet in that study.
You have options with martin houses. It is hard to find dried out gourds as in years gone by, but you can find plastic gourds to give the same visual image. You can see martin houses, gourds or even jugs hanging from wagon wheels or poles with cross arms for housing. There are also what is called “apartment house” dwellings on the market that can come in either aluminum or wooden designs. If you want to make your own purple martin apartment house, I can send you the directions by request.
One key step is, where do you put the provided housing? Martins like the houses to be in open areas. It is suggested to not put your martin house closer than 40 feet from a tree and 30 feet from a building. It should be noted that martins are called colonial birds and like to nest together. If you scatter birds houses made for solitary bird pairs around the property, you won’t have much luck on attracting martins. Mengak adds that martins like to hang out in groups on telephone and electrical lines, so putting housing near utility lines may help. Also near water, such as a lake or pond is good, too. The openarea putting of housing will make it easier for the birds to catch insects in those open spots. Mengak also states to keep martin houses away from the same area of your honeybees because martins will consume bees.
Mites in the bird housing can be controlled by putting a pinch of sulfur dust in each nesting compartment. Houses should be on poles 15-30 feet tall. Mengak adds that the rule of thumb is the lower the vegetation, the lower the pole can be. You should take the pole down each fall for cleaning and storing. I know the taking down and storing may not sound inviting. If you want to leave the houses up all year, you still need to clean out the compartments.
Finally, if you do leave up all year, you need to plug the entry holes to keep out other bird species while martins are gone. For more information, contact UGA Extension- Gordon County at 706-629-8685 or email gbowman@uga.edu.