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 either quickly enter their cavities or more often bolt, 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.
More perching space, particularly for compact gourd racks like the Deluxe and K24 series, may encourage martin fledglings to roost in large numbers on the racks and perching rods. This action can create an opportunity for great horned and barred owls to swoop in and grab these youngsters. We have this problem every season with our two personal martin colonies. If you don’t have owl issues, then having the martin fledglings roost on the racks is fine and gives the youngsters a place to roost in relative safety.
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 have substituted plastic garden stakes that I painted white. 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. Probably the most lasting perch rod would be solid aluminum/metal perches.
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 slowly 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 always 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 my painted garden stakes 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 using 6 foot long garden stakes this season and I have primarily used this length. This length seems to work well on my K24 gourd racks and the stakes protrude out from the gourds and martins can easily land on them. 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 photos showing gourd racks and houses that have added perching rods attached. Some of the photos are older ones with martins and several are new for this season showing the painted garden stakes.
Here is an old photo of PMCA Deluxe Rack with 18 Troyer Horizontals. I have attached cane pole perches to this rack for added perching space. The Deluxe and K gourd rack series are compact and really don’t provide much perching space out from the gourds. When I added cane pole perches, these racks seem to be more attractive to martins and the martins readily perch above their gourds.
Here is an early morning photo of my colony showing numerous martins perched on additional perching rods attached to gourd racks. Many of these martins were independent fledglings which roosted for several weeks at my colony.
Another early morning photo.
Photo of K24 with fiberglass rods. I have removed all my fiberglass rods and replaced them with painted garden stakes. The fiberglass rods were shedding splinters.
Photo of K24 gourd rack with cane pole perches attached with black zip ties. These perches have been replaced with painted garden stakes.
Two close up photos showing zip ties holding a garden stake to the hanging rods of a K24 gourd rack. These are heavy duty zip ties and they hold real tight.
Photo of K24 gourd rack with plastic garden stakes attached with zip ties; last year I used fiberglass rods.
Photo of 28-room Trendsetter in 2014 with fiberglass rods attached to the porch railings. These rods have been replaced with painted garden stakes.
Photo of 28-room Trendsetter with garden stake perching rods painted white. They are attached to the porch railing with plastic zip ties.
Photo of 12-room Trendsetter with garden stake perching rods painted white. They are attached to the porch railings with plastic zip ties. In 2014, I used fiberglass perching rods.
Steve
