Here for your enjoyment is some history about Purple Martins.
Expect to learn the truth about martins and mosquitoes.
Before we start I want to give you some general information to help you understand what I am going to say about Purple Martins.
This information comes from a pamphlet on Urban Wildlife Diversity from the Texas Parks and Wildlife, written by Ray Whitney.
Ray starts off with definitions, which always help me.
Wildlife diversity means the variety of animals that live within a particular area.
These often decrease when the area becomes urbanized.
Urbanization is the process by which wildlife habitat is transformed to better meet the needs of humans.
When an area is developed for human use, much of the native vegetation is removed and its habitat potential for wildlife is significantly altered.
Adapting or not Some animals adapt very well to the urban environment.
Others, however, either move elsewhere or decrease in number and variety.
Urban wildlife is a term most often used in reference to nuisance animals like opossums and raccoons or House Sparrows and Bronze Cowbirds.
However, there are numerous native and migratory animals that spend part or all their lives inside city limits.
An animal's response to urbanization depends on its natural habits.
Specialists and Generalists In birds, for example, habitat specialists (those who have special preferences for foods, trees for nesting, etc.
), such as flycatchers, vireos, bluebirds and warblers, tend to decrease in number.
These birds are typically long-distance migrants and cavity nesters, that rely on complex habitats throughout their migratory routes.
Habitat generalists (those who adapt to whatever is available), such as Northern Mockingbirds, House Wrens, doves and grackles, may actually increase in the urban environment.
These birds tend to be edge species, short-distance migrants that are seed eating or omnivorous by nature.
Habitat generalists are able to find food and shelter in a variety of ways and can survive quite well in simplified urban habitats.
I want you to note the ideas of urban wildlife and habitat generalists.
These two terms help us understand Purple Martins.
First of all Purple Martins are complex birds.
They winter in South America, which makes them long-distance migrants.
Martins are cavity nesters and do not eat seeds.
They eat insects.
Therefore, they are outside most of the typical parameters for habitat generalists and yet they have increased in urban environments.
So why do Purple Martins come to man-made martin houses? Purple Martins have been managed intentionally by mankind longer than any other North American songbird.
For hundreds, if not thousands, of years Native American tribes in what is now the southeastern United States hung clusters of hollowed-out gourds to attract this large swallow to their villages.
Early Old World settlers were quick to do the same.
Today an estimated one million North Americans provide housing for Purple Martins.
Competition for available cavities occurs among our native cavity-nesting species; however, competition for cavities has been intensified by the introduction by non-native House Sparrows and European Starlings.
With humans taking down the trees for farming and cities, cavity-nesting birds are in a tremendous competition.
For these reasons, 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" and are now the only bird species entirely dependent on humans for supplying them with nesting cavities.
Purple Martin Info Now a little information about this fascinating bird.
Purple Martins are North America's largest swallows.
They weigh around 1.
75 ounces and have a wingspan of approximately 15 inches.
Purple Martins have broader wings and tails and a more soaring flight than other swallows.
Males do not acquire their adult plumage until their second winter.
Purple Martins are aerial insectivores that do most of their feeding at 100-200 feet above the ground.
Their diet is almost 100% flying insects and they opportunistically feed on flying ants, beetles, butterflies, cicadas, damselflies, dragonflies, drone bees, flies, grasshoppers, hoverflies, katydids, mayflies, midges, mosquitoes, moths, stinkbugs and wasps.
The mosquito myth exposed Many martin apartment landlords mistakenly believe that Purple Martins devour large quantities of mosquitoes.
I've heard this from everyone who has a martin house.
Actually, no scientific study has ever shown mosquitoes to comprise more than 3 % of the Purple Martin's diet.
Most mosquito species are simply not available for Purple Martin consumption due to the fact that mosquitoes maintain nocturnal and low-flying habits.
Martins prefer to fly days and fly high to catch their meals on the wing.
Purple Martins typically live to be about five to seven years of age.
Adult martins are extremely faithful to colonies, returning year after year.
Only about 5-10 % of the subadult martins return to their natal colony.
The rest disperse to other established colonies or to colonize unestablished sites.
This is how a person who wants to set up a new martin apartment house will get residents.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson.
I had no idea how completely dependent Purple Martins are on us.
I also didn't realize how taking care of them is like taking care of a part time pet.
Expect to learn the truth about martins and mosquitoes.
Before we start I want to give you some general information to help you understand what I am going to say about Purple Martins.
This information comes from a pamphlet on Urban Wildlife Diversity from the Texas Parks and Wildlife, written by Ray Whitney.
Ray starts off with definitions, which always help me.
Wildlife diversity means the variety of animals that live within a particular area.
These often decrease when the area becomes urbanized.
Urbanization is the process by which wildlife habitat is transformed to better meet the needs of humans.
When an area is developed for human use, much of the native vegetation is removed and its habitat potential for wildlife is significantly altered.
Adapting or not Some animals adapt very well to the urban environment.
Others, however, either move elsewhere or decrease in number and variety.
Urban wildlife is a term most often used in reference to nuisance animals like opossums and raccoons or House Sparrows and Bronze Cowbirds.
However, there are numerous native and migratory animals that spend part or all their lives inside city limits.
An animal's response to urbanization depends on its natural habits.
Specialists and Generalists In birds, for example, habitat specialists (those who have special preferences for foods, trees for nesting, etc.
), such as flycatchers, vireos, bluebirds and warblers, tend to decrease in number.
These birds are typically long-distance migrants and cavity nesters, that rely on complex habitats throughout their migratory routes.
Habitat generalists (those who adapt to whatever is available), such as Northern Mockingbirds, House Wrens, doves and grackles, may actually increase in the urban environment.
These birds tend to be edge species, short-distance migrants that are seed eating or omnivorous by nature.
Habitat generalists are able to find food and shelter in a variety of ways and can survive quite well in simplified urban habitats.
I want you to note the ideas of urban wildlife and habitat generalists.
These two terms help us understand Purple Martins.
First of all Purple Martins are complex birds.
They winter in South America, which makes them long-distance migrants.
Martins are cavity nesters and do not eat seeds.
They eat insects.
Therefore, they are outside most of the typical parameters for habitat generalists and yet they have increased in urban environments.
So why do Purple Martins come to man-made martin houses? Purple Martins have been managed intentionally by mankind longer than any other North American songbird.
For hundreds, if not thousands, of years Native American tribes in what is now the southeastern United States hung clusters of hollowed-out gourds to attract this large swallow to their villages.
Early Old World settlers were quick to do the same.
Today an estimated one million North Americans provide housing for Purple Martins.
Competition for available cavities occurs among our native cavity-nesting species; however, competition for cavities has been intensified by the introduction by non-native House Sparrows and European Starlings.
With humans taking down the trees for farming and cities, cavity-nesting birds are in a tremendous competition.
For these reasons, 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" and are now the only bird species entirely dependent on humans for supplying them with nesting cavities.
Purple Martin Info Now a little information about this fascinating bird.
Purple Martins are North America's largest swallows.
They weigh around 1.
75 ounces and have a wingspan of approximately 15 inches.
Purple Martins have broader wings and tails and a more soaring flight than other swallows.
Males do not acquire their adult plumage until their second winter.
Purple Martins are aerial insectivores that do most of their feeding at 100-200 feet above the ground.
Their diet is almost 100% flying insects and they opportunistically feed on flying ants, beetles, butterflies, cicadas, damselflies, dragonflies, drone bees, flies, grasshoppers, hoverflies, katydids, mayflies, midges, mosquitoes, moths, stinkbugs and wasps.
The mosquito myth exposed Many martin apartment landlords mistakenly believe that Purple Martins devour large quantities of mosquitoes.
I've heard this from everyone who has a martin house.
Actually, no scientific study has ever shown mosquitoes to comprise more than 3 % of the Purple Martin's diet.
Most mosquito species are simply not available for Purple Martin consumption due to the fact that mosquitoes maintain nocturnal and low-flying habits.
Martins prefer to fly days and fly high to catch their meals on the wing.
Purple Martins typically live to be about five to seven years of age.
Adult martins are extremely faithful to colonies, returning year after year.
Only about 5-10 % of the subadult martins return to their natal colony.
The rest disperse to other established colonies or to colonize unestablished sites.
This is how a person who wants to set up a new martin apartment house will get residents.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson.
I had no idea how completely dependent Purple Martins are on us.
I also didn't realize how taking care of them is like taking care of a part time pet.
Source...