Wood Bird Houses for Purple Martins

The Purple Martin is the largest swallow found in North America. The adult has a slightly forked tail which aids it in flight, giving it speed and agility. When approaching its housing, the purple martin will dive from the sky at great speed with its wings tucked.

It takes two years for this species to reach its full adult breeding plumage and only then is it possible to, properly, identify them. Adult males are entirely black with a glossy steel blue sheen while adult females are dark on top with some steel blue sheen and lighter under parts.

The eastern species of the purple martins nest exclusively, in man-made bird houses. It is the only species of bird totally dependent on humans for nest sites. It is important to note that purple martin houses that are unmonitored often become breeding houses for starlings and sparrows梥pecies that are a primary reason for the declining of the martin population in North America. These species often kill martins for their nest cavity. Because of the devastating effect that these intruders have on the martins, many landlords trap these species to insure the survival of the martin colonies.

The breeding habitat of the purple martins is found across eastern North America. There are, also, some locations on the West Coast from Columbia to Mexico. This species, typically, breeds in colonies, often multi-rooms for multi families located in proximity to human housing. In the winter, they migrate to the Amazon basin extending into Ecuador.

Purple martins are aerial insectivores. They catch insects in the air. They are very agile and eat a variety of winged insects. Occasionally, they will come to ground level to eat insects. This makes them great friends of the American gardener. They, usually, fly very high and because of this, they are not much of a threat to mosquitoes.