Housing market is heating up as purple martins begin to arrive
A centuries old cherished relationship between people and birds is about to be renewed as purple martins head to our neighborhoods from wintering grounds in Brazil.
The sleek, shimmering, purple-blue birds are the largest of North American swallows at 8-inches long and flying on a 15-inch wingspan in fluid, graceful flight. Males are distinguished by their wholly purple bodies in contrast with females, which are gray on the underside, each weighing about the same as a golf ball.
We welcome them to our communities with an affection akin to love for pets. And we maintain condominium-styled martin houses in our yards for colonies of martins to settle in during spring, build nests and breed a new generation.
Our association with purple martins follows a tradition begun by early American Indians who installed hollowed-out gourds in their villages to attract nesting colonies of martins that would protect villagers from pesky flying insects. The aggres-
sive martins also fended off crows and ravens from their nests and, serendipitously, from the village’s supply of fresh food.
European settlers in the New World quickly caught on to the Indian tradition of hosting purple martins in their own communities. By the early 20th century, the martins east of the Rockies had developed such a symbiotic relationship with people that they forsook ancestral dwellings in tree hollows and cliffs for human-made housing. And people welcomed them.
Birds called “scouts” — small groups of older male and female martins — arrive between mid-January and early February to occupy the previous year’s nesting sites. If a particular site is no longer available, scouts will search for another site. Or the birds may simply head to a new
site for reasons known only to martins.
By late February and into March, the remaining martins will arrive to join their forerunners at nesting boxes or hanging gourds in people’s yards. Martins do not migrate together with their relatives nor do they necessarily nest as members of the same colony as the previous year. Every new nesting colony is more likely a group of unrelated martins, which helps diversify the gene pool of succeeding martins.
Many of us will be cleaning our martin houses or installing new ones to welcome the birds back. Not only the elegance of martins but also their ringing songs and calls charm us. A springtime dawn chorus bursts from a colony of martins in spring with the males singing an oddly melodious croaking song and the females a chortling song.