hello, I am new to this and need some answers to questions I have. We have had on our property for approx 18 mos., a 20 room purple martin house on top of a 15 ft pole. I have been busy and careless and have never taken it down to check or clean.
We are in central TX and I know they are purple martins but would they still be here? The house would've been taken down and cleaned but I never wanted to disturb the families. It seems the house is still occupied!
Is it possible they never leave? Sorry for all the stupid ??'s but this is all new to me and I want to learn more about them and taking care of them
You'll want to spend some time reading the general information sheets on the home page here.
Is your house in a good open location? If so, it may have some martins bonded to it. Martins should return to Texas from South America in another few weeks (Texans can comment more on your specific location)
The newer thinking is for houses to offer 6 x 12 compartments, so that old house probably needs a makeover. I don't think you have time to do much this year -- except observe and learn, which is a lot. If you want to clean it out, that may be helpful. If you want to try one upgrade, right away order two natural gourds from the PMCA, get them painted and hang below the old house. If you don't already have martins with "site fidelity" to the house (successfully bred there last year), the gourds will be a way to hopefully get some activity this season -- and then you'll be hooked on this wonderful hobby.
birdlady58,
Welcome to the PMCA forum and we feel that all question's should be answered in order to help educate new landlord's and Old one's alike ,and like John said you need to go to the pmca home page and read,read,read there is a ton of info for you there....in answer to your question , no those bird's that are already here probly are not Martins , but either Sparrow's and or Starlings of which we call "trash beaks" and should be eliminated immediately in order to give any Martins a chance of setting up residence at your Houseing , Martins Migerate from the united States every year around the last of July or the first of Aug and head to South America ,They come back to the US begining in Jan thru March according to your location , You can click on the Scout arrival page on the pmca home page, then click on ea state and the arrivals are listed at ea location w/ date.
We are glad that you ask questions and hope that you lower your houseing and get rid of what's in there. If you need us to send you a picture of any of the trash beaks that Kill and Harm our precious Martins i will be Glad to either email them to you or Post them here for you to see.
I hope this info helps you and we are all looking forward to you reporting to us your progress on your PM Colony in the future. Good Luck
Pictures Taken with Canon Rebel XT Digital using a Sigma 50-500 Long Lens.
Wishing everyone a Great Martin Year
Happy Martining for 2022 to everyone,
would you kindly post a pic of a martin close up for me. Last summer, I found a small speckled egg, off white? with purple spots on it. I assumed it was abandoned.
The birds here are a shiny dark purplish/black looking color and are about 7" long
birdlady58,
I would be glad to post a pic of Pm's and the egg's for you, Martin eggs are Pure white. It may take me a moment to find my Pic's but i will post them for you to look at.
Pictures Taken with Canon Rebel XT Digital using a Sigma 50-500 Long Lens.
Wishing everyone a Great Martin Year
Happy Martining for 2022 to everyone,
if they look just like a martin to me but are not martins?? Now, I am afraid to take the entire thing down and clean it out as to what I might find
I guess it has to be done tho. I will also get two gourds as suggested and hang them from below this house. (where can I get the natural gourds from?) I didn't understand the abbreviations as this is new to me lol
sorry about the abbrevations ...i just get in a hurry Pic's stands for(Pictures)...as far as those speckled eggs , they sound definately like Sparrow eggs , those bird's that you are describing shiny dark purplish/black looking color and are about 7" long may be Starlings , Most starling have a Long sharp Yellow Beak but not all of them some do have a Black long sharp beak. Don't be afraid to lower & raise your houseing The Martins will come back , i raise & lower mine all the time but don't make any movements when it late in the afternoon like dusk , do it during the day .
Pictures Taken with Canon Rebel XT Digital using a Sigma 50-500 Long Lens.
Wishing everyone a Great Martin Year
Happy Martining for 2022 to everyone,
birdlady58, first of all, I am happy that you have found this PMCA site, there are many people that frequent this site that will be very happy to help you...There are no dumb questions, so please ask every single question that you can think of, and in a short time, you will know so much about these wonderful birds.
If you may even like birds a little bit, and I think you do, that you will become so attached to the purple martins after you get them to stay at your house, that you will be hooked forever. These are at the very top of the bird world in the most loved birds, they will come back every year to your house after you attract them, but only if you learn how to care for them, and this is the place to learn how to care for them..
Central Texas is probably one of easiest places in N America to attract the purple martins, and with our help, you may have some within a month or two..You are in the right place provided that you have a wide open place with no trees nearby....First question is: how far away are the trees in four different directions, this is the most important point to see if you have a suitable site. If you do not have a suitable site, you may want to quit trying to attract martins. Basically, how far to the outermost limbs of trees, just take large steps and count each step as 3 ft, it is not necessary to be more precise than that...
I am wishing you the best of luck, and keep asking those questions
Last edited by Emil Pampell-Tx on Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
If you have robin-sized dark birds going into the house now, those are starlings.
Is this an old wooden house? Starling "usually" won't nest in the 6 x 6 compartments of an aluminum house, but will nest more in 6 x 6 units wooden houses -- they like darker interiors. If you can clean things out, the starlings may move on.
There are photos of martins on the "martin biology" tab on the home page here -- you can even play the recording.
You also may want to contact some nearby "landlords" this spring and visit their sites to learn all you can. You can get a couple of gourds from the PMCA shop. Us serious landlords would be access doors on them and special entrance holes to keep starlings out, but I just suggested hanging them as is (but painting white) this first spring to get you started.
If you are indeed having S& S Problems (Thats Starling & Sparrow) you need to take a look at this repeating S&S trap , i have one and just love it, go here to see it: http://shop.purplemartin.org/shopsite/p ... traps.html
Pictures Taken with Canon Rebel XT Digital using a Sigma 50-500 Long Lens.
Wishing everyone a Great Martin Year
Happy Martining for 2022 to everyone,
We are on 10 acres. The pm house is approx 80 ft from a small and ONLY tree line on our wide open property. They have plenty of open space to fly around
The pm house is the small 6X6? 20 room apartment size, that's why I would be shocked another bird would try and use it
It is also approx 200 feet from our house. In view for me but not close enough to observe everything that goes on
I told hubby I want to take it down and clean it this weekend. I "was" thinking of getting another one being we do have so much open space.
I read they love water nearby?? If this is true, our pond is right off of our back porch
I will read more on this site later today and try and get a pic of what is in my house
Even with those traps, once trapped, what do you do with the birds??
I love the description of your property, you have everything it takes to be able to attract martins, and that is great news! That wide open space helps protect the martins from hawks, and maybe owls
The house can be used as is, but many people are modifying their houses to make the rooms larger to a 6 x 12inch size, as this gives the martins more room. It is recommended also for owl protection, as owls can reach into a 6 x 6 compartment and clean out your martin colony, and cause the birds to leave. This is an option, but you may want to try to attract some first.
Since you have the wide open ideal place, the predators become the only reason that you will not be able to keep martins, so that is the area that you should concentrate on. The worst predators are starlings & sparrows. They are non-native birds brought over from Europe, and they fight the American birds for nests, they can and do win the fights, and often kill the American birds. They are the worst thing that you can have on your place if you like any of the American birds. They take the nests from things like woodpeckers, purple martins, bluebirds, chickadees, etc., and that is bad news. Most people that like the American birds hate the sparrows and starlings, it is perfectly legal in every state in the United States to kill them. That is what is recommended, there really is no other option, nothing else works. They bother the large cattle feeding lots, they are regularly poisoned at these places, its all legal to kill them in any manner..Some people, including me, position the pole close to a window in a shed or their home, so that they can shoot the starlings or sparrows with a pellet rifle. It is ok to have the martin house close to your home so you can sit and watch them and enjoy them..
To control sparrows & starlings, some people trap them, some people shoot them, so if you want martins, that is a necessary part of having them...they must be controlled by destroying them. To help you do that, most poles that are used today are made to lower the housing very easily. Many people use a house that can be lowered with a winch and cable. This is the ideal way, it is easy to raise and lower the house, it is easier to trap sparrows and starlings by putting traps into the house to catch sparrows..
The martins do like water, if there is water within a couple miles of your house, that will help to attract them.
Another predator is the rat snake, they can EASILY climb any pole that you put up. To prevent that, people use many types of pole guards, here are a few, some work better than others:
1) 4ft of pvc pipe over the pole, let it sit on the ground
2) electric fence
3) purchased pole guards from places like the PMCA
4) bird netting which causes the snakes to get tangled up in the bird netting where they cannot go up or down. Then you must take them out of the netting
5) various styles of upside down plastic buckets & large pots.
As you can see, it does require maintenance to keep out the predators. The purple martins are such a beautiful bird, they are so loyal, the same birds come back to your house every year, you will love them, they are worth the work..
I love watching all birds (except the barn swallows that took up residence on my back porch last spring lol) I have at least 8 other small bird houses on the property far away from the PM house. Some of those have sparrows in them. I would hate to shoot them but might have to to get rid of the hundreds we do have
Actually, very few people would ever destroy a starling or sparrow if they had some other choice. It bothered me the first time I did it, and most other people had the same problem....Since then, I have seen the dead baby purple martins, the broken eggs, the sparrows killed the mother sitting on the eggs, and then built a nest on top of her. Things like that, after you see them, you wll not forget it, and then it becomes easier to kill the sparrows & starlings. Then when you do kill them, there seem to be 2 that return for every one that you got rid of, and it may take several years to thin them down.
When we moved here, all we had at our place was sparrows, I trapped many of them, and now we have a lot of native American birds such as martins, cardinals, bluebirds, chickadees, etc...We like those beautiful birds (and hate the sparrows....smile)
Birdlady. If you're able to purchase more housing, then just put it up close to your house. The Purple Martins seem to equate humans to safety. They would also love the pond closeby. They'll delight you for hours watching them dive down, skimming the water, drinking, plus getting their bellies wet, them preening and bathing. They're delightful to watch. I could watch them for hours, so it's probably good that I still don't have them nesting here. ha ha. There are different places to buy gourd racks, housing etc. If you do a Google search for Purple Martin Housing, or Purple Martin Gourds, you might find some. If you'd like you can email me, and I could send you a couple links. CUL Lou
