Purple martins compete over nesting site.

Purple martins - male bottom right, female bottom center.

Think Covid-19 and toilet paper.  Where do you get any when it is all gone?  It's like that with purple martins, only the bottom line (excuse the pun) is much more serious.  Without a nesting site the birds can not breed.  The female will not likely mate with the male, and even if that did take place, there would be no place to lay eggs, rear chicks, or return to safety.

Like any consumable resource, there is a limited supply of acceptable nesting sites.  Purple martins are particularly fussy over what works.  First of all they are cavity nesters; they brood in a hole in a tree.  The hole has to be large and deep enough but also not too much of either.  It is best if the tree is over water; fresh is preferred but they will nest over saltwater (estuary) marshes too.  I have seen them take a nesting site near the water on occasion. 

If we go back to the toilet paper analogy, it would be like needing toilet paper, but the only acceptable type would be three-ply, pleated with flowers, and smell faintly of lavender.  Now, try to find that when it is just all gone.  That is the problem the purple martins are having.  The more trees we fell, marshes we fill in, and environments we alter the fewer of them there are.  We make birdhouses for swallows, but it is too small for them.  Nesting boxes for wood ducks are placed, but they are too big.  As well these work fine near waterways but mostly are not over them.

I took this photograph this morning, about three hours ago.  It is spring here and the birds are starting to build nests.  If you look at the male on the bottom right you can see a dark semicircle just touching his right shoulder.  That is the nesting site being squabbled over.  What's more, it is not only the two pairs of birds.  There was at least eight birds frantically flying about trying to get in.  On top of it all, starlings would also take such a place, only they are not at all discriminating in their choice.  They will just as happily nest in a steel lamp pole.

If we are to help the purple martins we need to invest in nest boxes for them.  I have seen them, they have a landing site with a flat entrance way which starlings cannot use.  When put over water they are taken with enthusiasm by only the one species.  All we have to do is make the effort.  It would be like providing three-ply, flower-pleated, lavender smelling toilet paper for those of us who demand such supplies.  Then get Amazon to ship it to the house directly so less discerning competition wouldn't take it. 

Notice the key thing here is that people have to know about the need.  That is one of the reasons I write these blogs - to inform - so share this with others.  Not because I care about toilet paper, but because I care about the plight of our wildlife.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen