First timer

[Decaturboy]

I’m a new landlord in central IL. Wondering when the best time would be to put out the gourds? Thanks

[Bird Brain]

I would put them up now because the first birds to move in will be house sparrows. Hopefully then you can exterminate them all before the martins arrive in your area.

[seth❤️birds]

I live in north central Missouri, I usually put mine up around the beginning of March

PMCA Member
Seth Sensenig

[Stingray]

I’m a new landlord in central IL. Wondering when the best time would be to put out the gourds? Thanks

Welcome!
Good to see new landlords!
Lots of great, knowledgeable, helpful folks here.
I'm in South Florida and my birds usually arrive in mid January.
Yours will undoubtedly arrive much later when it warms up (a lot) in Illinois.
Probably late March early April

Best of luck in your first season!

[flyin-lowe]

Welcome, you can go up to the top of the page and click on the purple martin main website. Then on the screen go to research and then search the purple martin scout research and look at the scout maps. You can search by year and find your city and surrounding cities and see when martins start to arrive.

Some basics for first time landlords. It won't hurt to put the housing up early but you are going to have to be prepared for competitors. You will need to be able to identify an house sparrow (HOSP is what you will see them called on here) as well as starlings. These to birds are not native and can and should be eliminated. You will also likely have tree swallows and or blue birds try to move into your houses too. They are protected species and you cannot eliminate them.

It is more common for people to start a colony with what we call SY (second year) martins who are coming back the first time after being hatched last year. They will be looking for a new place to live this year. They will arrive a little later, they will be listed on the map/research page I mentioned earlier. The earlier birds that arrive are called ASY (after second year). They come back earlier and typcially they have site fidelity and will return to the site they were at last year. There are always chances that someone who had housing up last year could not put it up this year, or they had predator problems, which could cause the ASY's to not return to their site from last year. So in some instances people do start new colonies with ASY's.

I will tell you in this part of the country, it is not uncommon for it to take 5 years to get a colony established so don't get frustrated. I have started two different colonies on my own property after moving, and both place most people would consider perfect locations for martins, wide open spaces and large bodies of water near by. Both times it was my 5th year that I got established.

Lastly, it wouldn't hurt to post some pictures from google earth of your yard/property and we where you plan on putting the housing. The location can be important and we can help with that as well.

[Decaturboy]

Thank you for your responses. I,ve been reading up on how to start colonies and found conflicting information. I understand it may take some time to attract martins, but want to do all I can to improve my odds.

[flyin-lowe]

Probably the #1 tool to help you is the dawn song. It will get martins in the area to stop by and circle your housing. Wether or not they like it and stay is a different story. When I was starting both of my colonies I used a CD Player alarm clock. With all the updates in tech. I am assuming there are easier ways to get an outdoor blue tooth speaker and just schedule it from a computer or ipone or something. I used to start it at 5 AM and have it play until 9 am.

[scottfreidhof]

I would shoot for the second week of April to install new housing at your latitude. Numbers of returning martins will have increased by then and the bulk of European starlings and English sparrows will have chosen nesting sites. You will still have to battle starlings, sparrows, and possibly tree swallows after that week but the pressure should be less.