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Purple Martin Scouting Reports 2013
Click Here to See Where the Martins Are!
Become a Purple Martin Landlord and Enjoy the show
These high-flying, insect eating colony dwellers love to be close to humans and each other. Place your Purple Martin housing, one that has several compartments or several single homes (gourds), in open areas. The housing should be within 100ft of your home, so you can enjoy their beautiful song and antics, while Martins chase their supper.
Keep Purple Martin houses away from trees. They need clear airways to catch their food source – flying insects. As well, the clearing is an essential way that they can track any predators such as hawks, owls from attacking their nests.
Keep Starlings and House Sparrows away from your yard. These non-naïve birds enter the Martin’s house then kill or injury the adult birds and destroy the nests and eggs.
Protect your Martins from raccoon and snakes by attaching a pole guard and never use pole guide wires which predator can climb.
Keep the house clean and pest free by doing a nest check every 5 to 10 days until the hatchlings are 20 days old. You can observe if there is any damage from predators and check for parasites such as blowfly larvae or bird mites.... more info
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