A martin’s diet is diverse and includes many kinds of insects from leafhoppers, flies and beetles to dragonflies, bees, wasps and grasshoppers.ĭespite relative abundance of purple martins in the Carolinas, many people try for years to attract them without success, or their colonies disappear. The species seems to prefer nesting close to human activity – perhaps because there are fewer predators.Ī generation ago, many people erected purple martin houses in the belief that these birds consumed mosquitoes, but according to the PMCA martins do not specialize. There are areas of sharp decline nationally, especially in some northern states, and in urban sprawl areas where people often lack adequate open space to erect housing – martins prefer open sites.īut even in cities, martins gladly colonize housing in open parks or other public places. Martins can credit their good fortune to devoted men and women who erect and maintain housing. Unlike many other bird species, purple martin populations overall in North America are holding steady - including North and South Carolina - based on long-term data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Roost viewing tours are provided at sunset beginning in late July aboard the Spirit of Lake Murray yacht service. The Coastal Carolina Purple Martin Society seeks to protect the site and educate the public about its significance.Īnother massive roost forms in Lake Murray, South Carolina, on a small island. One of the largest in North America is at Manns Harbor, North Carolina, on the outer banks, where an estimated 100,000 birds – arriving from hundreds of miles away – roost under Umstead Bridge. In late summer, purple martins gather in massive roosts in preparation for fall migration. Landlords can provide live mealworms, or crickets that have been frozen and then thawed, and even bits of scrambled eggs - the food placed on high platforms, in nesting compartments or flung into the air with plastic spoons or slingshots. Fortunately for the martins, newer techniques of supplemental feeding of insects have been developed. Purple martins feed on the wing – taking insects from the air – and early arrivals sometimes face the prospect of starvation when cold snaps clear the air of insects. Purple martin colonies sometimes can be found in parks and public places, including a colony on the grounds of Biltmore Estate outside of Asheville. A traditional way to hang gourds in the South is from a single line between two poles, much like a clothes line. Purple martins prefer to nest in colonies in gourds hung from large racks and in multi-compartment birdhouses. These are simply experienced birds that are eager to reclaim their housing. These younger birds sometimes are more easily attracted to new housing locations. One-year-old martins – called “subadults” - arrive 6 to 8 weeks later than the older birds. Females are a bit drab, with a gray breast.
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The first wave consists of “adult” martins – those two or more years old, with adult males sporting full dark-purple color. North Carolina sees its first martins in early to mid-February. 21 Sumter, March 7 Inman, and March 11 Conway. Purple martins begin to trickle into southern South Carolina in early February and dates/locations are watched by martin enthusiasts throughout the breeding range in the eastern United States and in Canada.Īrrivals are posted on an online database – at maintained by the Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA), a nonprofit conservation organization.Īmong South Carolina arrivals so far: Feb. Purple martins, the largest of the swallows in North America, are totally dependent on man-made housing east of the Rockies and faithfully return to the same locations each year, so it’s understandable that human “landlords” anxiously await the return of “their” birds from wintering grounds in South America. In the birding world, few species generate more excitement than does the “Purple Martin,” a swallow that is arriving now in the Carolinas, with reports of “scouts” logged almost daily online.
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