PURPLE MARTIN BOX INSTALLATIONS

Purple Martins begin arriving in February. Installation of Purple Martin boxes by Plateau's expert field technicians is currently underway and will finish up for the season in February. Photo courtesy Lee Kothmann.

For centuries, Native American tribes attracted Purple Martins to their villages with clusters of hollowed-out gourds. Experts have surmised that the Purple Martins served as village alarm clocks with their early morning singing or, perhaps, they were feathered watchdogs, as the large swallow is well-known for sounding out alarm calls when predators or strangers approach the colony site. Whatever the reason for the attraction, the Purple Martin has been managed intentionally by humans longer than any other North American songbird. Today, whether for their beauty, song, or voracious appetite for pesky flying insects, an estimated 1 million North Americans provide housing for Purple Martins. Due to a decline in natural nesting sites (such as tree cavities) as a result of urban sprawl, farming and logging, as well as competition from the non-native House Sparrow and European Starling, human-provided housing and management has become vital to Purple Martins, especially east of the Rocky Mountains, where they have undergone a complete "tradition shift." Purple Martins are now the only bird species entirely dependent on humans for supplying them with nesting cavities. Purple Martins arrive at their Texas timeshares around the first half of February after spending approximately five months in South America. (Purple Martin information from The Purple Martin and Its Management published by Texas Parks and Wildlife).