What Purple Martins Need
Like all birds, purple martins require four things for a suitable habitat: food, water, shelter, and nesting sites. By choosing options that specifically appeal to purple martins, it’s easy to create a bird-friendly habitat with these swallows in mind.
Food: Purple martins eat flying insects, so no bird feeders or type of birdseed will attract them. Instead, birders should avoid spraying insecticides or pesticides on lawns, trees, or shrubs, since doing so will eliminate the most important food source these birds require. Once the purple martins take up residence and start devouring pests, your insect problems will disappear. On rare occasions, purple martins will eat fine gravel to use as grit to aid their digestion. Having a secluded source of this gravel nearby can help attract the birds. They will also eat finely crushed eggshells as a calcium supplement during the nesting season. Providing eggshells (dried and briefly toasted to be sterile and brittle) can encourage nesting purple martins to linger nearby. Water: All birds require some source of water, and purple martins prefer large, natural water sources instead of bird baths. A large, long pond, lake, or stream is the best source since these birds drink in flight by scooping their bills into the water as they pass by. If you have enough room to put in a large water feature, choose an elongated design that gives purple martins adequate room for this fly-by drinking. Otherwise, it is easiest to attract purple martins if there are nearby natural water sources such as a retention pond, drainage ditch, golf course water feature, or similar water source. Fortunately, these water sources can be several hundred yards away for purple martins to still use easily.
Shelter: Purple martins take shelter almost exclusively in artificial houses, and they will avoid brush piles and dense plantings for fear of lurking predators. It is easiest to attract purple martins to open areas with little shelter, as the birds will be more secure when they have a good visual range to survey. A few scattered, open perches will be welcome, however, as the birds will use those vantage points to watch for threats, scan for food, or roost between feedings. Tall poles with antenna-like structures on top are excellent perches for purples martins. Nesting Sites: You can attract purple martins by putting up appropriate purple martin houses. They are colonial nesters and large birdhouses with multiple compartments are best to meet their needs. The birds will be naturally attracted to homes painted white, which also reflect heat better and keep nestlings in each house cooler. Both apartment-style houses and gourd houses are available, and creating clusters of houses will encourage large colonies of the birds to nest. Birdhouses for purple martins must be placed 30-120 feet away from large trees and other structures to give them plenty of space for feeding.In addition to providing appropriate houses for purple martins, supplying proper nesting materials can help encourage them to take up residence. A nearby pile of small twigs, grass clippings, and leaves is perfect, and a muddy area is also useful as these birds use mud as a binder to hold their nests together.
More Tips for Attracting Purple Martins
To make your yard even more attractive to purple martins:
Take steps to deter predators, such as using baffles on birdhouse poles and managing house sparrow populations so they do not take over martin houses. European starlings can also take over purple martin houses and should be kept away from these nesting areas. Add supplemental perches above and below purple martin houses to give birds a safe spot to roost and preen. These perches should be thin and narrow enough that they cannot be used by larger predators. Add small, dark-colored decoy birds to purple martin houses to encourage these social swallows to check out the structures. Avoid owl-like decoys, however, which could be seen as predators and will keep purple martins away. Play recordings of purple martin songs at dawn to attract passing birds, especially if you have not had purple martins in your yard previously. Use recordings sparingly, however, and discontinue them once birds start to nest.
As with attracting any backyard birds, it is necessary to meet purple martins’ needs for food, water, shelter, and nesting sites to encourage them to visit. Patience is essential, but with the right habitat and proper housing, attracting purple martins can be very rewarding.
