When do martins return

This name is attributed to the popular belief that these birds are "scouting" for suitable places to nest. Supposedly once the birds find suitable places to nest, they fly all the way back to their wintering grounds in South America's Amazon Basin and lead the rest of martins back to sites selected. Now that would be something special! However, as much as we might like to believe this fanciful tale, such is not the case.

Scouts are simply older martins that take off on their spring migration long before younger martins. Although scouts can be either male or female, most are males.

The only thing they have in common is that they are the oldest birds in the population. Scouts are seen in south Georgia as early as January. This year, the earliest sighting I am aware of took place in Moultrie on Jan. Typically, scouts reach middle Georgia by Feb. In the northeastern corner of the Peach State, the birds usually appear by March 1. According to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, data collected over the past years reveal that scout arrival dates can vary by 30 days or more.

A host of factors such as weather, food supply and conditions in the wintering grounds are thought to affect when the scout first appear. Whether or not these early travelers remain at the nesting structures we have erected for them depends on where they have previously nested. If they have nested there, they will stay. If they nested elsewhere, they will move on to that place. When a scout shows up in your backyard, it may initially spend very little time there.

It might inspect a few nesting cavities and then spend the remainder of the day feeding. Purple martins return to the same nesting location each year. Therefore, it's important to provide suitable housing, or birds will move elsewhere the next time they migrate to Florida. Over the course of a 6-year period, we tested seven commercially available housing options to determine what is best for martins in North Florida: small plastic gourds, large plastic gourds with round entrances, large plastic gourds with crescent-shaped entrances, large plastic gourds with porches, large natural gourds, 6-chamber polypropylene houses, and 6-chamber aluminum houses Figure 5.

Small plastic gourds were approximately seven inches in diameter, whereas large plastic and natural gourds were about ten inches in diameter. We adjusted internal walls of both types of houses so that they each offered six- by inch compartments. All total, birds had 36 cavities to choose from. We found that martins had similar preferences for both types of houses aluminum and polypropylene , and for all large gourds regardless of entrance shape, the presence of a balcony, and whether made of plastic or natural.

The only option that martins regularly avoided building nests in was small gourds: very few birds used these. We found that martins fledged the greatest numbers of chicks in natural gourds and large gourds with porches, followed closely by aluminum or polypropylene houses an average of 2. Birds very rarely produced any chicks in small gourds. Nest chamber size: Gourds or houses should have compartments larger than 36 square inches i. Our research shows that martins rarely select small gourds; when they do use them, very few of their chicks survive.

Some commercially available houses have the option to remove walls to enlarge chambers. This additional space is advantageous because it can keep nestlings cooler during hot weather, and reduce the ability of predators owls to access chicks through the entrance.

Rain: An overhang above each entrance can prevent rain from wetting nests. Holes in the floor can allow rainwater that enters to flow out the bottom. Consider caulking plastic gourds along their seams if they're the type made of two pieces of plastic. The caulking will prevent water from entering at the joints. Entrance hole: Round entrances should be approximately two inches in diameter and located an inch to an inch and a half above the floor. Keep an eye out daily for their arrival.

Be sure to leave entrances to the martin houses nest sites closed until you spot that first Purple Martin scout, or other species of birds could take advantage of your Purple Martin gourds and set up their own nests in your purple martin houses.

Be sure set up traps for non-native species of sparrows and starlings or they could invade your Purple Martin colony before your first Purple Martins even arrive.

Usually, younger Purple Martins arrive about 4 to 12 weeks after the first adults arrive. In general, your Purple Martin gourds and birds houses can attract Purple Martins well into summer so be sure to not take down your gourd racks or bird houses until late August or early September in northerly areas. In addition to these common sense location guides, there came an unexpected one.

Purple Martins like to be near people. They seem to like seeing people as they go about their daily tasks of eating every flying insect in the area. Purple Martins spend their winters very far south in Brazil.

They migrate north, with the first ones arriving in the southern US — Texas or Louisiana — in February or March and to our area about April 1. The first ones to arrive are adult male martins, so black in color that they are almost purple. They check out the accommodations and, if they approve, hang around waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. Very early each morning, they fly high above the farm singing their dawn song.