How to Attract Purple Martins to Your Garden – 9 Attractive Tips for Novice

Do you want to learn how to attract purple martins to your garden? After a long journey of South America, a bird would appreciate a delicious meal and a space to rest, isn’t it? For those who love purple martins, these delicious insects and summer homes may be within your backyard if you give the beautiful and graceful birds an appropriate home. Apart from a restricted area in the northwest, birds have left across the Western United States off their summer destinations. However, they are still returning each year to the Eastern portion of the nation.

Those who enjoy the birds’ amusing and useful qualities are highly anticipated their return. Some are looking to profit from the reputation of the birds for their ability to attract hundreds of mosquitoes every day. However, more details on that will come later. Learn more about this fascinating species, and then discover how to attract purple martins to your garden.

What are purple martins

The purple martins are a North American bird species and are a member of the family known as the swallow. With wingspans that can reach 16 inches, they are the largest swallows found within North America. Males who are adults are iridescent black with blue-tinted feathers. Females of adulthood have brown feathers that have a blue tint.

In the breeding season, purple martins are found throughout North America. After incubation and hatching, the young purple martins eat and fly. In the summer months, and the birds migrate, they travel towards South America, ending up mostly in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru. During nesting season, the birds attract to birdhouses in backyards in the eastern region of North America. Sometimes, they nest in natural spaces such as woodpecker holes or Cacti.

Learn more: How to protect sunflowers from birds and squirrels

How to attract purple martins to your garden

All summer long

Naturally drawn to warmer weather, the purple martins organize their schedules to enjoy the summer and spring across the northern hemisphere, then travel toward the south to experience the warmer time in the southern hemisphere, too. So, why wouldn’t you is that is it not? This means you can find them within the Southern U.S. as early as February and then migrate north by May or June. While within America, U.S., their primary goal is to reproduce, usually producing 4 to 5 eggs per season.

Convincing them to grow the number of their families within the backyard is a cause of satisfaction to many backyard gardeners. They’re attractive not only to reduce the number of insects but also because of their melodious singing and lively flying style. Both make them a delight to observe. Another reason might want to offer the birds a spot to rest. We’ll talk about it later in the piece.

The best lodging in the right location

In the eastern portion of the United States, purple martins are most often found in houses provided by humans. The handful of birds that do manage to look around the west can nest in woodpecker holes and other natural nooks and crevices. However, it’s on us to provide them with an appropriate new home in eastern regions. Multi-housing structures rise up out of the ground on top of a tall pole in open areas. The birds love these condo-style homes, or you could explore a natural or a man-made gourd that has a door cut out a different housing style. In reality, Native Americans long ago discovered that these purple fowls were like gourd homes and were said to have hung hollow gourds in their communities to draw them in.

Some gardeners use a mixture of gourds and condos to ensure that every pair of birds has the ideal home for their families. Install your housing units at any height between 10 to 20 feet and at least 40 feet from houses, trees, or any other structures that are taller than martin’s height. But keep them no further than 100 feet from the human dwellings. Evidently, they would like to be near to us, but in a way that isn’t too. In the south, opt for white or light-colored houses to reflect the sun’s heat and help keep nestlings cooler. To enjoy your own view, It is possible to place the bird’s home in a manner that you can observe and hear the birds from your porch while enjoying their song and aerobatics.

Other incentives

Make sure that a couple of other things will get these birds to make their home in your backyard. These airborne creatures take baths and drink in the air. Thus, having open water close by- perhaps within a half-mile approximately- can be a major selling feature. Birds don’t drink from baths. Having bugs to consume is a good idea and doesn’t pose too difficult to them, is it? The condos could be fully furnished. Place one or two inches of nesting materials at every compartment’s bottom. Be sure to use fresh and not the last season’s unsanitary leftovers.

Make a habitat

The best method to attract more purple martins is to create appropriate habitats around your home. Native plants that produce berries, as well as seed pods, constitute the majority of their diet. They also enjoy open areas. This will ensure they get plenty of to eat (via bird seeders) and water to live regardless of how much the backyard birds eat (assuming they’re fed as well). Also, you should consider adding a water feature, like a birdbath retention pond or small pond to drink water in the summer months, when mosquitoes reproduce rapidly, and offer another source of food to the purple martins that feed on aquatic insects such as dragonflies, damselflies and other invertebrates that appear from the waters in the evening.

Stop the intruders from entering

But martins aren’t really the only species to attract by the beautiful home you’ve built. If you’re not careful enough, house sparrows and even starlings could be able to move into your carefully selected condominiums. One way to stay clear of this is to schedule when you open your condominiums to coincide with exactly the time when martins are trying to settle in. It will differ regionally naturally, and you should consult local birders for further information.

If they decide to move into the area, remove them with the help of removing nesting material. The birdhouses must taken down every year — after they’ve gone to Brazil and beyond and thoroughly scrub them clean. Set them back up at the right time for the coming season. In addition, the new guests could be the same guests that have stayed with you last season. They’ll remember and will return.

Make a purple martin house

If your birdhouse is already in place, you can build additional martin structures on your property to allow the birds can spread and claim their own space. They also will work to stop others from nesting in the places too. Install your martin’s housing colony on birdhouse poles to lift them off the ground and away from predators. The same is true for gourd houses, which are great for attracting martins. Remember that purple martins are drawn to large colonies and social settings.

Save a species

We promised an additional reason for inviting this species to join you. Unfortunately, the populations of these animals are decreasing. Do your part to aid them in rebounding? It was once the case that the practice of putting up houses in purple martins was so widespread that Audubon would search for houses to decide where he would stay for the night. In 1831, he reported having said, “Almost every country tavern features a martin container at the top of the sign-board. I’ve observed that the more attractive this box is, the more attractive does the establishment generally turn out to be.”

Although these birds of purple are not considered endangered, we should not let them reach this point. More birds will thrive if more people (especially those in eastern Europe) provide warm and welcoming accommodations in the east. Let’s give them a space to rest and be young, and they will thank us with their singing and beauty.

Get rid of neighboring sparrows

House sparrows are in competition with purple martins to nest in areas. They must remove them from the yard as fast as is possible. You can do this by eliminating their nests entirely or creating a baffle that will prevent birds from settling on birdhouses and other areas in which you would like purple martins in place of nests. Another option is to put out traps that catch house sparrows so that they cannot access food sources (they will not die because you’ll release them to others).

Sparrows also have a chance of contracting the West Nile virus, making it even more crucial than normal should there be an outbreak in your region. Fred Astaire, the Ornithological Purple martins are among the most sought-after feathered creatures in America as per the Audubon Society. Admired for their eating habits and adored their vocals and aerial dance, The bird is the favorite of gardeners everywhere.

Check the weather conditions

The purple martins won’t survive the winter because they are tropical birds. This means you must be aware of the local climate conditions and forecasts before making any plans with them (like building feeders or homes). You should also keep an eye on your local weather (precipitation amounts, levels of humidity, and temperature) because it could change the size in some regions due to migration patterns evolving over time compared to the previous years.

Conclusion

As you can see, it’s not that difficult to attract purple martins to your garden. In reviving their natural environment by providing food and water to this species of bird, it is possible to attract more of these gorgeous birds to your house. Although you’ll have to keep predators out to attract more purple martins to your garden is more beneficial than a drawback.