anybody know anything about attracting purple martins??????

[tinkster]

trying to find out what we are doing wrong... my dad built the boxes all his life.. loves the birds but for some reason cannot get them to come to his house.. he is killing all of us trying.. he has houses of all shapes sizes on poles high, low, he uses his backhoe to move and hang and is just determined to get them.   

I am wondering what he is doing wrong.  His houses are the ones he always built before that attracted them. I have never seen them but hes got me wanting to now.  anybody else have them or even want them?

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[miguynmkoi]

Interesting....Had to check it out to see what a purple martin is and this is a site that has everything about PM's, http://www.purplemartin.org/main/mgt.html.  It even explains the right and wrong ways of attracting these birds.

Good Luck!

[models916]

You will have to kill every sparrow in the area. They don't live or thrive in the same area.

[marla]

Annette, that is a great link, I have it bookmarked from a while ago.  We have also had a martin house, home made, store bought, and even grew gourds dried them and used them but no luck.  This sight gave me some insight into the possibilities why.  We have friends about a mile away that get them, their house is in the middle of the field.  Ours is to close to the trees and house.  DH had martins on the farm and there were also plenty of sparrows, so I'm not sure that is so ture.  Sparrows will try to nest in the martin houses, this is why they need to be shut up once they leave and not reopened till the scouts come back in spring.

[tinkster]

Thanks yall!

Marla.. my dad was also under the impression they sent out scouts.  According to the one sight though that is not true.  Seems the males go out first but are going back to their previous years house.  Seems to attract u need to be open latter than the first scouts and are trying to attract the newborn from the previous year that have not set up a colony???  so much different info who knows.. think we will try the open it later and try to snag a young male/female couple.  Kind of interesting it says they always go back to their home from the previous year.  Gonna also try the decoy.  Maybe this will be his year!

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[toph2o]

  open spaces,,, they must have lots of open space around the martin houses. Even the spaces between trees must be  wide open.. had the same thing happen in my yard till I asked..  Im not going to cut down my trees  Move the house to a area that might be more open and watch.  just my 2 cents   toph2o