Purple Martins - 1 of 3

So - You Wanna Be a Landlord?

by Ann Conner

Purple Martins. Never really cared for them. Thought they looked like grackles. They’re purple, right? And their houses. What self-respecting bird would live in a white house. Talk about reverse camouflage. On the other hand, I love swallows. Used to watch the cliff swallows along the (other) Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona darting and diving along the mile-high walls. Barn swallows. Yeah, they’re a little messy, but what’s not to love? To show the extent of my ignorance, my sister pointed out to me recently that the SWALLOWS that nest in her Saguaro cactus during the Tucson summers are…Purple Martins. Epiphany. I got it. Purple Martins are pretty. Grackles are pretty ugly. There’s a difference.

Which brings me to Mr. George Vickrey, a neighbor who lives just up the street. George hosted Purple Martins (PMs) at his Waco home from 1999-2003. He moved to MS in 2005 and has housed them ever since. During the summer of 2010, he successfully fledged 98 PMs of the 115 eggs he counted in the nests! That is huge! Mother Nature is rarely so kind, so George’s PMs must be very happy indeed with their landlord.

In an ironic twist of fate, it is my turn to write the January blog. Me, the person who only recently realized that PMs belong to a bird family I actually like. I contact George and ask, would he talk to us about his PMs? We think MS residents would like to know about his success and how he did it, and also the benefits of sharing his property with martins. Meanwhile I go on line and do a little research. My initial excitement evaporates when I read several articles. For every success, there’s a failure. One step forward, two steps back. I didn’t realize martins were so fussy! Several people I talked to gave me the old, “If you build it they will come.” Not so fast. The martins aren’t reading our literature. I schedule the interview with George, and after all the failures I’ve read about am totally unprepared for what I see in his back yard. Purple Martin houses. Lots and lots of them.

Hmmmm…..wondering if you could be such a super landlord? First things first. I don’t know anything about martins. What to do? Start asking questions. So I ask George for some general information, and he’s happy to share.

Around March 1^st, the adults (ASY) who nested here last year start to return. (Oh dear, gotta learn a new vocabulary. Young-of-the-year PMs are referred to as juveniles or hatch-year birds. Subadults returning to North America for their first nesting season are known as second-year (SY) martins, and the adults are referred to as after-second-year (ASY) martins.)

The subadults (SY) begin to arrive 4 to 6 weeks later, and they are looking for a new home. Less than 50 percent of PMs come back to where they were born. Instead, they seek new cavities elsewhere. This gives us “new” landlords hope! Maybe they will find the new housing I’m putting up.

OK, it’s February and I want to put up my martin house so I’ll be all ready! I want to open the doors immediately! Wrong. The first PMs we see each year (around March 1^st) are the adults (ASY) and they are returning to the houses they nested in last summer. These guys are not looking for a new home. They like it just fine where they were last summer and that’s where they’re headed. We have to wait. But if we simply can’t stand waiting, we can put up our houses in February; we just can’t “open” them for visitors. If we open them too early, we’ll have problems with sparrows who will NOT leave once established. Maybe some of our native wrens will want to set up housekeeping as well. So we need to leave our houses “closed” until mid to late March when the subadults (SY) are due. Once we open them, and even before we see any martins, our work begins. The houses must be closely monitored to make sure no unwelcome visitors decide to move in.

Let’s talk responsibility. There’s work involved here, but like most things if you love what you’re doing, it ain’t work. The introduction of the Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) into North America was followed by their subsequent rapid spread. Martins and other cavity nesters are forced to compete with these foreign species for nest sites. George says he has never seen a Starling on his property; that’s good news. However, he has seen House Sparrows, and has had to trap and remove them. This is not an optional activity. Both non-native species will aggressively take over your martin housing, clogging entrances with their nesting materials and injuring and even removing martin adults, eggs and young. These are bad guys and if you want to be a PM landlord, you must be dedicated to constantly watching and removing them. Seriously, if you think you might not be able to stomach dealing with the predators and invaders, maybe you should take up another hobby. Studies have shown that martin colonies left unmanaged suffer depredation of the martins and an increase of the non-native species:

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The Impact of Starlings on Purple Martin Populations in Unmanaged Colonies -- "Starlings are capable of seriously reducing martin populations whenever human beings fail to manage colonies." – Reprinted from: Purple Martin Update 1(1):10-12; Charles R. Brown; Yale University

http://purplemartin.org/update/StarlImpact.html

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Wow! This is a lot of information. And I haven’t even done anything yet. What I need is a step-by-step guide. So I ask George, what is the very first thing a prospective PM landlord should do? Here are his ideas, based on his 11+ years’ experience.

1. Do your homework. At minimum, read all the information on the websites noted at the end of this article. Find out what you’re getting into. Remember, if you become a PM landlord, the birds are dependent on you for their housing (east of the Rocky Mountains).

2. Evaluate your site. Do you have enough open space at least 40’ from the nearest trees and not more than 100’ from your house? No fudging here. TP&W guidelines say 40-60’ from nearest trees and 30-120’ from your house, but pay attention to the minimums. Martins and trees don’t mix. And they want to be near your house.

3. While it would be a nice amenity, water on your property is not a necessity. PMs will fly a few miles to water. George says any property in MS is near enough Canyon Lake to support martins.

continued on page 2 of 3

Contact for more PM info: annconner@gvtc.com