Increase the martin housing in your backyard or maintain your colony using this Purple Martin SuperGourd with Round Entry

This rugged, plastic gourd was engineered based on 20 years of research into the breeding biology of purple martins. This research found that purple martins have higher fledgling rates in large, white gourds than they do in typical aluminum martin houses, and this unit will certainly meet the needs of these birds.

The one-piece, plastic body has no seams, for protection from the elements, as well as a molded rain canopy above the 2" diameter entry. Seven drainage holes on the base of the item allow any captured water to exit rapidly, ensuring nestlings remain dry and safe. Molded ribs along the top of the canopy offer texture for martins, acting as a perching platform for versatility.

An access port on the side of the unit is large enough for a human hand to reach into the nest, allowing easy monitoring and maintenance, and its 45° angle creates a great viewing perspective. Use the threaded cap to cover this section, keeping the gourd enclosed for nestlings.

The high-density, polyethylene plastic body forms a relatively heavy gourd for less swinging in the wind, and its white color reflects sunlight, keeping the interior cool. This gourd will not rot, peel, split, or crack, nor will it break if accidentally dropped, and the UV inhibitors in the molded plastic body ensure a long life expectancy for it.

A thorough scrubbing at the end of the season should be all you need to maintain your SuperGourd. Use a rod through the 1/4" hole on the cleanout panel axis to place this home on a hanger or rack, or enlarge or drill your own holes to hang it with the entry facing outward.

The specific design and robust construction make this gourd one of the best available today. Maintain your martin gourds or increase the roosting options for your colony using this SuperGourd with Round Entry.

Product Features

• Opening is 2 inches in diameter.
• Dimensions are 10.5 inches for the diameter and 13.75 inches high
• Mounting instructions: May be hung
• Plastic Construction - blow-molded in white, opaque, high-density polyethylene plastic
• Can easily be hung underneath an existing martin house, from a gourd rack, or strung on a line between two poles
• The SuperGourd is a 10" one-piece plastic gourd with UV-inhibitors for long life, with a heavy-duty threaded access cap. There are no seams that will allow water leakage, and seven 5/16" drain holes on the bottom of the gourd to provide rapid exit of rain that may blow in. Horizontal arm drill guides in upper neck of gourd.
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Birdhouses Made in the USA, Amish made in Conneautville, PA
• Free Shipping. Delivery must occur within the USA. (Excludes Alaska and Hawaii)

The Bluebirder’s Ten Commandments

1. Place houses at least 300 feet apart, because bluebirds are territorial.
2. Keep the bluebird houses in open habitat. It’s the environment they prefer.
3. Control the House Sparrow, or it will eliminate the bluebird and Tree Swallow.
4. Add a second bluebird house 21 feet (7 paces) from the first house, at every 300-foot setting. This will allow the valuable Tree Swallow to also nest on your bluebird trail.
5. Control the most threatening parasite, the blowfly larva. If you don’t, you may end up fledging very few, if any, baby birds. Change their nests when babies are from seven to 10 days old (only one change per brood is needed.)
6. Attach a predator guard to your bluebird houses. This will protect the bluebirds from their predators and other enemies.
7. Avoid handling the bluebird and/or Tree Swallow young after they are 14 days or older. They may fledge prematurely, which could cause their death.
8. Monitor your bluebird trail at least once every week.
9. Remove the old bluebird and/or Tree Swallow nests on your first nest check after the young have fledged.
10. Keep accurate field records. This is the first step toward achieving greater success on your bluebird trail.

2022 Andrew M. Troyer, Bring Back the bluebirds 

The Purple Martin Landlord’s Ten Commandments

1. You must offer an open area. You can no sooner attract a woodpecker to an open field than you can attract Purple Martins to a wooded area.  They have a strong attraction to water, but open fields also give them the airport flyways effect they require.
2. You must control the European Starling and House Sparrows. I'm sorry to say but these two cavity-nesting species were introduced to North America by man. Now man must eliminate them by trapping, shooting, and converting housing to starling-resistant holes, or your colony will not succeed. These non-native starlings and house sparrows will peck the Purple Martins’ eggs and will kill their babies and even adults. They are the only two species that can be legally trapped in the US and Canada.  All native species are protected by law.
   
3. You must place your martin houses no closer then forty feel from any building and or tree. Yet do not place them further away from your own dwelling than one hundred feet. Purple Martins have adapted to humans and feel safer next to us than out in the middle of a ten-acre field. Fifty to sixty feet from your dwelling works best.
4. Offer proper housing. Color: white. Size: America has been informed that Purple Martins need 6” x 6” x 6” compartments. Studies have shown that they prefer a deeper compartment much more. They are then out of reach of owls. Give the martin an eleven or twelve-inch deep compartment, and/or offer ten to fourteen-inch deep gourds. The martin is eight inches long. How would you like to sleep in a six-foot bed if you were eight feet tall?
   
5. Give your Purple Martins the maximum predator protection by adding a predator guard underneath your Purple Martin house. This will deter raccoons, cats, snakes, etc.
   
6. Do regular five-day nest checks. This way you can stay ahead of the game. In doing so, take field notes of what is found inside each compartment at each check. Martins are just like honeybees, the better you care for them, the better they do.
   
7. VI I. Control the most threatening parasite, the blowfly larva. If you don’t, you may end up fledging very few, if any, baby birds. Do so by doing a nest change when babies are between five and ten days old and then again ten days later. Avoid handling the nestlings when they are twenty days or older. They may fledge prematurely, which could cause their death.
8. VIII. Offer crushed and dried eggshells in a feeder, or on your driveway, at your colony site. All swallow species eat those for grit. Important! Heat the eggshells for fifteen minutes at 250° in the oven to kill all bacteria. A bacteria called salmonella, found in unheated eggshells, has killed martins.
9. Keep the grass mowed under your martin houses. Do not plant flowers or shrubs around the poles. Purple Martins love to be able to see a predator should one come close. They don’t like snakes in the grass.
   
10. Make all changes to your colony site three weeks after the first martins arrived, or when you have seen the first piece of nesting material being taken into the compartment. This speaks for house replacements and/or adding new housing. Mostly for 1 pole colonies adding the second pole. When martins see that the changes are made by humans, it comforts them and they will accept it. Otherwise, they become skeptical and may never return. 
    

2022 Andrew M. Troyer