Purple martins are social birds and enjoy perching around their nests and socializing with other martins. One of the best ways to facilitate this socialization is by adding perches to gourd racks and houses. Not only will the residents of the gourd rack or house appreciate the additional perching space but so will new martins which may be looking for territory.
New ASY and SY male purple martins are often a little nervous when they arrive at a colony site filled with established ASY pairs and those aggressive ASY males. Perching rods on gourd racks and houses give a new male without territory a place to sit away from the immediate territory of a dominant ASY male martin. He can check things out from a distance at first before he attempts to find a nest cavity.
Permanent resident martins can use the additional perching space to guard their territory, advertise for mates, preen, and just socialize.
Additional perching space can also provide martins with important “lookout” spots to watch for incoming raptors like Accipiter hawks and merlins. When one of these fast predators is approaching, it is critical that martins quickly enter their cavities or more often bolt downward, build up speed and climb high in the sky. By seeing the raptor a head of time, the martins have a better chance of escaping.
There are many materials one can use to create more perching space on gourd racks and houses. I have used wooden dowels, various metal rods, wire stretched between gourd rack crossbars, plastic garden stakes, cane poles, and fiberglass rods. I used fiberglass rods in 2014 but discovered the rods were “shedding splinters” which stuck in my hands when removing the rods at the end of the season. So I decided to eliminate the fiberglass rods and substituted plastic garden stakes that I painted white. The plastic garden stakes still began deteriorating. For a number of years I used natural cane pole perches and these are excellent for perching. They do eventually breakdown and need to be replaced every few years but they are free if you can find the cane growing in a ditch or near water. Finally for 2019 I substituted all my garden stakes with solid aluminum 3/8 inch diameter rods and these should last!
Perching rods can be attached to gourd racks or houses using electrical tape, twisted wire, bolts/screws, clamps, plastic zip ties and other similar items. I have used black electrical tape but it can eventually come loose and can leave a sticky residue when removed; I no longer use it. I am now using heavy duty black UV protected zip ties and these have worked well. These zip ties will hold the perching rods tightly to porch railings on houses and round hanging bars of gourd racks and last at least one season or maybe even two. However, I usually replace my zip ties each season and they are not that expensive.
Of course, some gourd racks by their design offer plenty of perching space. For example, crossbar gourd racks and racks with rings provide ample perching space on the racks. I have not added more perching rods to my large Super Systems with multiple crossbars or my Gemini ring racks. However, you can still attach some kind of perching rods to these racks to increase perching space.
Houses, too, can be accessorized with more perching rods and I have done that to my Trios, Lone Stars and Trendsetters. Now I use only Trendsetters and it is simple to attach perching rods using plastic zip ties to the porch railings. For any house with porch railings it is usually easy to attach additional perching rods using zip ties.
Though I have used different lengths of perching rods in the past depending on the gourd rack design or house type, I am now using 6 foot long solid aluminum rods on my gourd racks and I have primarily used this length in the past. This length seems to work well on my K24 gourd racks and the rods protrude out from the gourds and martins can easily land on them. On 12 and 16 room Trendsetters I am using 4 foot long aluminum rods, and these work well, too. I like my perching rods to stick out at least 10 inches or more beyond the fronts of the gourds or houses. This distance gives more space to new martins that are checking out possible nest cavities and these martins are not as close to the territories of dominant ASY males. Plus the greater distance away from the gourds or house may allow martins to better see possible danger from Accipiters and merlins.
The diameter of my additional perching rods has varied from about 3/8 inch to ½ inch in most cases and martins seem to grip these with ease. It is easy to obtain uniform diameters with manmade items like metal rods or garden stakes. Of course, the natural cane perching rods come in all different diameters but this was not an issue and the martins could easily hold on to the rustic surface.
Adding more perching space to gourd racks and houses may make a system more attractive to purple martins since martins like to sit around their nests and socialize, protect territory and preen. If you haven’t accessorized any of your gourd racks or houses with more perching space, you may want to consider doing this. I believe the martins would appreciate it!
Here are some photos of gourd racks and houses with additional perches.
Tried to add photo attachment to another post and that didn't work for me either! Maybe they should do a forum segment at the July conference.