First Colony With Gourds

[Kyler]

In Colby Kansas which is the town I live in everyone uses houses and that is all the martins are nesting in. So I decided to add gourds this year to my site. Does anyone think I will get any in the gourds or not? My grandpa a couple years ago had 4 gourds up and he had 2 pair every year. So hopefully I can.

Also what can you do to make a gourd more inviting to a martin? I'm already putting pine needles in the gourds but is there anything else I can do?

Thanks in advance!

Kyler,

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The best thing that you can do to attract martins is to put the housing into a very open area. Nothing else matters much. Many people concentrate on housing types but it really makes no difference if you have a reasonable open site, so it just takes patience if you have the right kind of location. I have all gourds, and the only thing that I would recommend is tunnels with porches. I like to watch them sitting on the porch, and the tunnels give them more protection from owls. Good luck

[Laverne]

Hi Kyler. I live in Alvin, Texas. We enjoy a rich abundant purple Martin colony. Through the years, I have experimented with many kinds of housing for the birds. I have found they are more likely to nest in every cavity when given their personal space. And I believe the first human supplied housing was a gourd on a stick supplied by an American native. So, I choose gourds. And big gourds. Purple martins regularly lay 6 or 7 eggs in my big plastic gourds purchased at PMCA. In years when we enjoy enough rain to produce lots of bugs, most of those babies will survive to fledging. Drought years, not so successful. You live in a rich Purple Martin area and should see better numbers, as well. My biggest recommendation: (After following Emil's advice) do regular nest checks. The information revealed from regular nest checks will surprise you. When, you find missing eggs or babies find out why. Snakes and owls do more damage than the passive landlord realizes. I use pine needles in my gourds and provide oak leaves on a nest material tray for the birds to build their nests. And don't allow the nest competitors to nest in your housing. I do not erect all these gourd racks for house sparrows or starlings. Read this site. It is full of great information and ask your questions. We love to answer them.

[Kyler]

Thanks guys.

All of my gourds have either Troyer Tunnels or Ultimate Tunnel Entrance from S&K. Also I have added alot of perches this year to all my poles. I think more perching space is a little more attractive to them!

Also my site is pretty open. I have two small trees about 30 feet away and one is only 10 feet tall and one is about 20 feet but im pretty sure its dead!

[Tim m.]

Hi thought i tell you what i think of adding gourds. Three years ago i built a 24 gourd rack with two modified m12k's on top only had 9 gourds on tri-pole i had built before this . The martins filled the 24 rack which are all troyer verticals my colony has gone from 2 pair in 2003 and fledged 6 to 2017 142 pairs and fledged 548. Yes gourds work well and all my houses are modified trio,s enlarged and conley plates this has really worked for me here at Purple Martin Ridge. I have a 6 story castle that is 50 years old. Wish you the best ,greatest thing is my 13 year old granson loves martins and got his first 2 pair last season!!!!!!

[Tim m.]

Hi thought i tell you what i think of adding gourds. Three years ago i built a 24 gourd rack with two modified m12k's on top only had 9 gourds on tri-pole i had built before this . The martins filled the 24 rack which are all troyer verticals my colony has gone from 2 pair in 2003 and fledged 6 to 2016 142 pairs and fledged 548. Yes gourds work well and all my houses are modified trio,s enlarged and conley plates this has really worked for me here at Purple Martin Ridge. I have a 6 story castle that is 50 years old. Wish you the best ,greatest thing is my 13 year old granson loves martins and got his first 2 pair last season!!!!!!

[Kyler]

Tim,
Thanks for your opinion. I'm hoping they go crazy over them. Also that's great for your grandson. I'm 16 and I started when I was 12 I got my first pair when I was 13. Hope you have a great season!

[flyin-lowe]

Your growth is close to what mine was, I went from a single male 1st year, to 5 pair the next year, to 12, then to 30. So I wouldn't be surprised to see you get good numbers this year. From what I remember of the banding studies a few years ago I was thinking the average was that martins return to around a 20-25 mile radius of the site they fledged from. So just because the colonies close to you are all houses there could be some gourd racks you don't know about a little further out. For gourds I offer a variety from Troyers and some other brands and the Troyers always do the best, horizontal and verticals.

[Kyler]

Flyin,
Thanks for your opinion. Im going to add more if they nest in them this year! I hope my colony increases as much as yours did. I had 5 pair last year.

Kyler,