"Today’s Purple Martin Interest"Today’s Purple martin interest is not the same Purple Martin interest of our grandfathers. It is not the same Purple Martin interest of our fathers. Today’s Purple Martin interest is completely different, especially in the last five years. Because of loss of habitat, loss of landlords, weather-related martin deaths, poor management at Purple Martin colony sites, European Starlings, English House Sparrows and predation, Purple Martins are becoming very uncommon songbirds today. The Purple Martin interest today is more than putting up a martin house. It is a hands-on wildlife management of a bird species by average folks like you and me. There is a lot to know about Purple Martins today. It should be our responsibility and concern to help and inform anyone who is interested in these beautiful birds. The information contained in this booklet is a basic study of Purple Martin management that is important for both freshman and senior Purple Martin landlords.
You are! I am! And we are a force of about one million martin mavens in the US and Canada. We are the landlords. Yes, we are the martins’ humans and the martins are our birds!
Purple Martins are the largest of North American swallows and the only species of martin to be found on this continent. They are considered the most semi-domesticated of wildbirds. While they winter in Brazil, from the City of São Paulo to the regions of the Amazon Basin, they do not breed in South America. During their sojourn in South America, Purple Martins do undergo a complete molting of their plumage so that when they return to us in the spring, they are bright and shiny and renewed in the spirit of life. The martins are considered neo-tropical migrants because they travel to the tropics of the Southern Hemisphere for the winter. This is an arduous trip, much of which is over great expanses of water. Some birds travel from 2,000 miles back to the southern reaches of our country to 5,000 miles if they are returning to the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan (Progne subis) or British Columbia (race: arboricola).
Breeding
Bird Survey Distribution Map (BBS) Map Courtesy
of: The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD |
