Pros And Cons Of Using Porches On Purple Martin Housing

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Geezer,

Bluebirds are so plentiful over here. We have erected bluebird houses at various locations and all are occupied each season. The bluebird's worst enemy is the rat snake around this area. I believe we could have a large bluebird trail of houses along the edge of our country road.

I ordered a bunch of Troyer Horizontals with porches and tunnels and will check out the entrance area relative to potential drainage problems. I will be using both porched and un-porched Troyer horizontals and look forward to seeing how the martins respond. My Super Gourds will be un-porched in 2008, but I plan to add porches to them in 2009. Since I use round holes, I will place the porch lower down and rainwater runoff from the porch will not be an issue.

Though I mainly use dry pine needles to create pre-built nests, the martins frequently collect dry clipings mixed in with mud. We create a wet area and the female martins flock to this site to get a combination of mud and grass. Martins use dry hay "stalks", too.

Wet nests can be a problem, particularly with my Trio houses, as rainwater can easily flow under the flip-up door panels. On my Castle, I created double layered sub-floors in the actual nesting chamber area and then added nesting material. The double layered sub-floors created more distance from the floor and incoming rainwater did not "wick up" as much into the nesting material. This worked for the most part in keeping the nests drier.


Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

Geezer,

I just got my 48 new Troyer Horizontal Gourds with tunnels and porches. The entrance hole is flush with the porch so rainwater could splash or flow inside. However, there is a drainage hole drilled under the tunnel near the entrance to allow water to flow out. I believe that rainwater inflow into the porched Troyer Horizontals will not be a big issue.

These are FINE looking gourds! I have just placed all them on various racks and will soon post some photos on the Forum.

Steve

[James Strickland FL]

Morning Steve, I received my porches for my Troyer gourd this past weekend and I installed them. I did not have a perfect fit with any of them. So water going into the gourd does not appear to be a problem. I like round hole so I cut out the entrance of the tunnel and to me it is like a rain guard over the entrance, so this will help in cutting down on the blowing rain also.

[Davlyn]

Good Morning Steve,
I also use round holes and I am going to be adding porches to my Nature Line gourds, how much below the hole would you say to put the porch? I am going to be ordering some of the Troyer Horizontals with porches and tunnels for christmas I cant wait! Thanks April

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey James,

Any little opening around the tunnel fitting will help to remove rainwater. The tunnels on my Troyers were already installed. Your comment about the tunnel functioning as a rain guard is true. The tunnel extends out over an inch from the original opening of the front of the gourd. The narrow extension greatly shields the internal opening from blowing rain. Good observation!

Steve

Hey April,

For round holes, I would place the porch on average about an inch below the entrance. However, if it is easier for your Natureline gourds to place the porch flush or nearly so with the hole, that works too. Only possible problem with flush porches is rainwater may be able to splash or seep in through the entrance hole.

One thing to consider. When I use porches/perches on gourds, I use a side to side swing rather than a front to back. A side to side swing will keep the gourd from tipping downward in the front when martins land on the porch. This is not a big problem unless the tipping is extreme. If you use extended tunnels, then the weight of the tunnel and any birds perched on the porch could tip a front to back swinging gourd downward. However, I have seen gourds with perches/porches that swing front to back and the martins nested successfully in them. So this may be largely a preference on part of the landlord.

I believe you will really like your Troyer Horizontals with porches and tunnels. I have 24 of them on a new gourd rack and they look really good! I still need to add my cane pole perches to this rack for more perching.

Steve

Steve

[Guest]

Hey Steve!

Good article on comparing porched vs unporched. I have one more con I would add to your list. If a porch helps a martin to enter a SREH, then it is logical that it will also help a starling to enter a SREH. The testing I've done with trapped starlings supports that statement. Of course you said in your article that some pros are also cons.......seems to be the case.

I personally like the idea of a remote porch......meaning a porch positioned just far enough below the entance that a starling can't use the traction of the porch for assistance to push through the SREH (roughly 1.5" - 1.75"). This way you get almost all the benefit of a porch without assisting the starling. As you mentioned, this may work better for the SREH that are slightly taller in the center (WDC, Clinger, etc.). I like the Clinger or Crescent when using a remote porch because the bottom is flat so it seems it could easily be grabed to enter the SREH and when the starling grabs the bottom, it blocks enough of the entrance that it is more difficult to enter.

I like your description of the stiff tail feathers and how the males often sleep in a cling position inside a natural gourd. Seems we should do what we can to add a "grip rail" or something inside the nesting areas of plastic/metal housing so the martins can do what comes naturally.

Thanks again for the article!

[James Strickland FL]

Hi Steve I found the netting at Home Depot and I put another gourd rack I had. I also put pouches on all my gourds. If you look at my updated posting you will se what I did. The one pole has no guard as of yet, but I am working on it. They will be on by the time the season starts.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Hogwild,

I am glad you enjoyed the article on porches.

Thanks for sharing your insights and observations concerning porch placement for srehs. The key is to find the shortest distance that excludes starlings but does not make it difficult for martins to enter the sreh.

We have only used porches which are flush or around 1/4 inch from the crescents that Bob has cut for our satellite martin colonies. On our Trios with factory crescents, the distance from the bottom of the crescent to the porch appears to be closer to 1/2 inch. Several starlings, mainly females were able to breach these crescents, build nests and even lay eggs before we destroyed the starlings. However, many starlings were still not able to enter the Trio crescents. But even just a few is still a problem for some of our satellite colonies located in starling infested areas around Shreveport.

Your "remote porch" concept appears to be working for you and the martins are still able to enter the srehs and starlings have been excluded so far. The remote porch would greatly reduce rain inflow in to the entrance hole. Also such a porch may minimize the chances that large nestlings would venture out from the entrance since the porch is lower down and perhaps "not as inviting" as a flush one.

I hope you will continue to research porch placement for srehs and report back on the Forum. Thanks again.

Steve

Hey James,

I will check out your new posting and see your gourd porches and the other gourd rack! Rat snakes in south Florida are often active year round due to your sub-tropical climate. Glad you found the netting!

Steve

[Davlyn]

Hey Steve

I was going back over your post to Porch or Not to Porch, and I have adding porches to some of my Natural gourds and Natureline gourds. I am just not sure if the martins would like it as well as they do without the porch. I have added porches to some and may add them to the rest, I just hope my martins like the improvement. Are you going to add porches on your Naturals and SG, are just leave them as they are? I have round holes.

Thanks April

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey April,

I will have porches on all my tunneled Troyer Horizontal gourds and cane/wire perches on all my natural gourds that maximize vertical/horizontal depth.

My cling plate Troyer horizontals will be porchless and so will my Super Gourds and my traditional naturals with entrances cut on the fronts.

I am not sure if martins will really "prefer" gourds with porches, but the porches to do offer some outstanding positive attributes relative to feeding large nestlings and bringing fledglings back to roost in the evenings.

My goal is to place either porches or perches on all my various gourd types in the future. However, I did want to leave about half my gourds porchless during this first major test to see if I could ascertain any preferences.

I offer only round holes in my personal colony so porches/perches are really not necessary to facilitate martins entering and exiting my gourds.

In your case, you could observe the martins' reaction to the gourds with porches and if the martins readily accept them, then you could add porches to your other gourds.

Do your gourds swing front to back or side to side? When you add porches to gourds, the gourd may tip down some when martins perch if the gourds swing front to back. All my gourds with porches/perches swing side to side to prevent this tipping motion.

Good luck with your porches and please share your observations on the Forum.

Steve

[Davlyn]

Hey Steve, I think that is what I will do, right now I am going to leave porches on a few and see how the martins react to them, if they seem to do well with them then next year I will add porches to all my gourds!
Thanks April

[Steve Kroenke]

I am re-posting this older article of mine on the pros and cons of porches. I had hoped to place porches on ALL my gourds beginning in 2009, but didn't succeed. But I have made good progress toward that goal. Porches have many positive attributes for martin housing and I have grown to appreciate this the more I use porches.

Steve

[Guest]

Steve- as usual a great article. I have porches-but only had one pair last year-which was my fist year. Off subject- I put a post on forum recently wondering if anyone knew how the martins found their way from point a to point b. amazing how they can come from south america to my particular gourd after only doing it once before. I have a feeling you may be able to explain this to me..

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Peggy,

The whole area of bird migration is a fascinating one and it is particularly so for purple martins. How martins do it is probably still one of those biological mysteries though scientists are gradually learning more and will one day solve the riddle.

Purple martins are neo-tropical migrants which means after they have finished nesting in North America they migrate to certain areas of South America to over winter and complete their molt. It is believe purple martins evolved from swallows of the tropics and that is logical since martins return “back” to their “ancestral homes” to spend the winter. With the main exception of the tree swallow, North American swallows, which includes the purple martin, winter in the tropics.

Studies suggest birds orientate themselves to the compass points using the position of the sun during the day and the stars at night. They can also sense magnetic north. In addition they may use other clues such as visual layout of the land and sound such as waves on shores and winds through mountain passes. So celestial points in the sky and geography may be important factors helping birds, including martins, find their way during migration.

Purple martins apparently migrate mainly by day though when they cross the Gulf of Mexico this journey most likely includes night travel too because of the distance.

But there may be more to finding their nest sites than just the sun, stars and magnetic field. Martins may be “hard-wired” in their brains to migrate via their genes. The location, route and perhaps even the techniques to fly thousands of miles from South America to a tiny nesting site in North America could be based on genetic influences. For example, martin young may migrate later than their parents so these youngsters fly by themselves from North America to their wintering grounds in South America, a route they have NEVER flown before. These youngsters are not taught by their parents. Perhaps the only way they can do it is because the migration information is available in their genes. Also, these same youngsters become SYs on their wintering grounds in South America and then on their own migrate to North America to breed without any “help” from older martins that have made the journey before. Other migrating birds abandon their young as soon as they fledge, and a short time later, the young make the migration on their own. All this points to a possible genetic basis for the martin’s ability to migrate long distances and find specific locations.

So there could be several factors that influence a martin’s ability to return thousands of miles from South America to a tiny spot in North America to breed. This could include using the sun, stars, geography, and magnetism for orientation and specific “migration” genes that hard-wire the information in the martin’s brain. Maybe those little DNA molecules are fueling the martin’s migration engine like a genetic global position system! I hope I live long enough to see all the mystery of martin migration unraveled!

Here is link to an old posting of mine on the “The Purple Martin’s Migration North”; you might find it of interest:

http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=91

I hope this information has been helpful to you.

Steve

[Guest]

Excellent!!! Just goes to show we humans, that many birds/animals have
exceptional qualities we are not even aware of. These are not just "birds", they are unique in many ways... Thanks you so much for this inro-I knew you would come through for me Steve!!

[Steve Kroenke]

Many purple martin houses and gourds use porches. Porches offer many advantages over housing without porches though there are some negative characteristics.

I am re-posting this older article dealing with the pros and cons of using porches on purple martin housing. All of my multi-compartment houses have porches and many of my gourds do too.

Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

I am reposting an older article dealing with the pros and cons of using porches on purple martin housing. Overall I believe porches are a good feature for martin houses/gourds.

I have porches on all my Excluder Gourds, Troyer Verticals and Troyer Horizontals with tunnels. I don't have porches on my Super Gourds and Troyer Horizontals with cling plates.

I wanted to place porches on all my Super Gourds but I didn't get around to it! Maybe next season I will do it.

Steve

[Jim Spetzman]

Is there any reason, good or bad, of using a single wood dowel for the Martins to use rather than a porch? thanks, Jim

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Jim,

When I used natural gourds, I used wooden dowel like perches on some gourds directly under the entrances. The wooden perches worked fine on these gourds. I have posted a number of photos showing martins using these perches. These gourds had round holes. I have never tried perches under srehs.

A porch provides more space for martins to sit and "walk around". It may be easier for a martin to enter a sreh with a wide porch than a narrow perch.

A wooden dowel like perch provides less area for a large owl/hawk to grasp and may make it more difficult for these predators to hold on to when trying to raid a gourd.

Also a dowel may not "tempt" nestlings to prematurely come out the entrance as there is less area to cling to.

Martin parents can still easily sit on a dowel to feed their young that are clustered around the entrance hole. But a porch offers more room for the parents to sit while delivering food.

A porch may make it easier for the fledglings to return in the evenings to roost in their nests. The porch has more space than a perch for the younsters to land on just prior to entering the entrance.

Also a porch has more space than a perch for martins to land on when they are carrying nesting material to their gourd. A porch may make it easier for the martins during this phase.

So both porches and perches have good features for the martins. A porch may be "better" overall, particularly when martins are entering srehs.

Steve

[Vixen55]

Hey thanks for this article! Even though it is an older one, it is still relevant to those of us who are newbies! I just got my 4 unit excluder gourd system and they come with porches. I was wondering about whether to use them or not , searched the forum and I found this article. My gourds are for next year because the sparrows got me this year. I'm better prepared to deal with them too thanks to ya'll. Very informative and helpful! Thanks!