Purple Martin Forum

I have a pair nesting in a bluebird box this year... Their nest is full of animal hair, leaves and moss...lot's of moss. The mother bird covers her eggs with leaves when she sneaks out. You'll find the 3-5 eggs to be pinkish with cinnamon colored speckles. bout the size of a tree swallow's egg Titmo...

I thought I had a Barred Owl in my area just the other day. The unmistakeable "who-cooks, who-cooks, who-cooks for yooooou" call is tale-tale sign of the Barred Owl. So I go off into the woods to try to find him....Turns out a guy who lives on the other side of the scope of woods behind my...

Great looking set-up...And not a moment too soon!
I'm in Hendersonville,TN and had my first scout this morning. If he's mine, he's way early this year...
I know your set-up will attract lots of attention from scouts as well as those looking for new place to live.
Congrats

If you can't find the EDIT button it's because you have to have a google account...Go to gmail and create a free email account. Then log on and try the purple martin colony map...The edit button should be as everyone says... This is a great tool to know how many colonies are around us, we could mark...

Got a problem and was wondering what is the culprit. First of all I have 15 martin pairs in a 20 compartment set-up All the pairs have a nest, some have eggs and a few even have young. I walked around my pole this morning and noticed 5 eggs laying on the ground under the pole. The eggs appeared to h...

John,
I'm not sure when you should be expecting your SY birds to return, but I just had my first SY male of the year return on 05-12-09 at my colony in northern middle Tennessee. So they are still moving north.
Carl McCoy

Frank, I live just a hop, skip and a jump away in Hendersonville,TN. And am expecting my martins anyday now. I have had a colony for the past 4 years and my return dates have varied a bit. In the past I have offered 12 compartments however, I had 11 compartments filled and only 1 compartment for the...

I didn't get a chance to remove the up side down decoy yesterday but have noticed the dive bombing has syopped, perhaps my birds think they killed the intruder????
This is the part I love about martins....trying to figure them out!!!

Dennis, Ironic you posted your experience with a decoy as I logged on to write the exact same finding over the weekend with my birds. I have the same situation with a pair of cooer's hawks in the area and added the decoy for a target bird in the event of an attack. Seems my martins too were the ones...

To my knowledge, they have to copulate each day prior to that days egg being layed.

Phillip, What part of the state are you in? I'm in Hendersonville, about 15 miles north of Nashville and I believe most anybody can get martins in Tennessee in time. I'm very lucky as I'm on a large body of water (Old Hickory Lake) but that isn't nessesary to attract martins. I too grew up with mart...

Yes Penny, those are my clothes pin door plugs...LOL
They keep starlings out and are easy to use. I now use the foam swimming pool "noodles" cut into plugs but when I switched to cresent SREH's I didn't have any noodles laying around....

Perhaps she knows all she can manage is the single house. My hat is off to her for taking care of her colony regardless of it's size. I see so many single house set ups that are over-run with sparrows and starlings. It's a pleasure to hear of an active landlord with a single house and not a father's...

Hi, Mike, We in the Americas have much in common with folks over in the other hemisphere. Migratory martins, swallows and swifts are declining there. Winter habitat in Africa is being threatened by development and 'better' building practices throughout Europe have closed up the cavities used for hu...

Here are some pics I made several years ago when I was altering my castle style house. I have found the foam floors help tremendously in my house, due to it's ill design by allowing rainfall to sheet under the walls and doors into the nesting compartment. Here in the south we have short cold snaps e...

I really like the look of a castle style house, So I offer the same house as you. I have modified my house into double compartments along with a host of other improvements. Don't worry, I had martins the first year in my "out of the box" house and I'm sure you will too :) . If you ever dec...

I simply used a small machine screw which has two nuts threadded on it. Sandwich the door between nuts and add a drop or two of thread lock (superglue)
Here's a pic of my door knobs.[/img]

In the few years I had returning martins they would settle in during the 3rd week of March...
I'd get your housing up when it is suitable for martins...This is just the beggining of our window.
Do you know if the house your managing had martins last year?

Tanarose, You asked if I had seen any martins...Well As I was working on my martin house at my new home I heard the familiar gurgling song of a male martin. I looked up and lo-and-behold a single ASY martin was flying overhead. He made a short hook and made a second pass at my new martin house. I be...

Tanarose, I live nearby in Hendersonville, And have hosted martins for the past few years. I just built a new house and am working on getting my second martin colony. I have gained a wealth of knowledge from both the website and its members. If there is anything I can do to share the knowledge I've ...