Purple Martin Forum

Several years ago Great Horned Owls started attacking my Purple Martin colony of around 80 pairs. I decided to design and build owl cages for all my housing to stop the predation. I wanted to create cages that were effective, looked decent, and still allowed for nest checks. This is what I came up w...

Several years ago I had evidence of owl predation. I built owl cages for all of my setups. Knock on wood... no evidence of owl predation since. I used aluminum angle arms and goat fencing to assemble the cages.

Last year I had 41 nesting pairs in my yard in the east-central region of Minnesota. Currently, it seems I have more birds than last year at this time... mostly adult birds. This evening I noticed many subadults scoping out the colony. The were especially entertaining to watch as they scrambled to f...

This is the third year for my newly established Purple Martin colony. The first year I attracted two nesting pairs. Last year I had sixteen nesting pairs. Prior to this, albeit at a different site, I tried for nearly 15 years to unsuccessfully attract a colony of Purple Martins. I had to deal with v...

My personal colony site is ready for the 2017 Purple Martin season! I will be offering 100 compartments. I have two wooden houses: T-14 and a Terrific Twelve New Creation house, for a total of 26 compartments. I have three gourd racks: Gemini, Super System 24, and K-Series 18, along with four gourds...

Hello All! I really enjoying hosting Bluebirds and Tree Swallows, along with Purple Martins, on my property. However, my Bluebird houses have become weathered and in need of re-staining, painting, etc. I appreciate the little maintenance aspect of plastic gourds and thought there must be a maintenan...

I now have six females, at least six ASY males, and my first SY male. Lots of activity and nest building is underway this morning!!! So exciting to see my young, small colony grow in its second year!!!

I thought I should give an update... The ASY male that first arrived at my home site on April 30th has paired with an ASY female... they have chosen a compartment on the opposite side of the T-14. I also have three SY females, two appear to be paired to ASY males... the other just arrived today. The...

Activity has been increasing at my site. Today, I had three ASY males early in the morning, claiming their compartments. Throughout the day, two more ASY males came... then chaos erupted as they called in a female. It was amazing watching the males, call, circle, and the dive to their compartments, ...

Morn n Daryl...glad to hear of your success on your new colony....and your returning martins....Did you play the dawnsong or the daytime chatter or both to get you started...ive been playing jut the dawnsong from just before daylight till 6 or so in the evening....haven't seen a martin yet this spr...

I woke this morning around 5:45 to the sounds of martins chortling! I had an two ASY males and one ASY female. They peered into compartments on all sides of my T-14 and New Creation House... didn't see them enter. The female left, the two ASY males have stayed all morning, entering many compartments...

Thanks everyone! When I returned home from work this afternoon, the ASY male was back! I'm pretty confident it's the same male as last year... Now I hope he can pull in more birds!!! I've been trying to start my own colony for sixteen years! Im not sure what's more agonizing... Waiting for the first...

Thanks John and Emil! Shortly after sunrise this morning while eating breakfast, I heard the welcome call of a martin. An ASY male quickly swooped to the T-14 and without hesitation entered the same compartment. Stayed inside for a minute or two, exited, flew a quick loop and then left. I'm not sure...

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of the 2016 Purple Martin season! For the past thirteen years I have been managing six public colonies, each with 20-30 pairs. During this time I tried, unsuccessfully, to attract birds to my home site. I then purchased a new house and moved to a more open a...

I have my 2015 MartinWatch forms complete. I used a spreadsheet software program similar to Excel to enter my data. With the new website design, I can't seem to find the email address as to where I should send this information. Please inform.

Terry and Michelle, I manage several public colonies. I currently have 224 plastic Excluder Gourds up. Some of them have been up for nearly 10 years. I have never stored them indoors. I haven't noticed any issues with the gourds... wash them up and they look good as new! The older style caps on the ...

So glad they finally came to you Daryl, couldn't happen to a more deserving guy!I wish you many more in years to come. I had a pair of subadults spend three nits at my site this spring and I thought I might get lucky but the Bluebirds that were nesting in a nearby BB box didn't like sharing their r...

Daryl, good going...Your a great example of never giving up.....Curious, did you play cd's, mud, pine needles...etc... Dave Dave, I played the dawnsong during the morning hours at the beginning of the season. I think it helped to bring in a SY male. As soon as he arrived I shut it off and never tur...

I've "known you" for a least ten years, and it couldn't have happened to a better guy. Congrats!! They have no idea how nice and safe you are going to make it for them. Happy for you! Thanks Larry! It sure helps to know many people were pulling for me over the years. I sure do miss the da...