Down here in south AL a lot of people do have Martin houses,and Gourds.I think maybe the house would protect the birds better Than the gourds but I keep neither. I hear people talk abt using the birds to eat Mosquitos,but Since I also keep a abt 30ft long by abt 20ft wide gunite Pool/pond fully aquatic planted for dragonflies I really Don't think I want Martins. I am a butterfly person,too and I garden for them. I keep a bunch of hanging bird feeders out front and A large platform station for all kind of birds including Woodpeckers.I feed year round Blk Sunflower seed And cracked corn. I have lots of butterflies in the yard,and the birds do Not seem to bother them too much,but I also have A lot of grass in the yard and my yard is rather Natural.I do not mow much during nesting season. So,I have LOTS of insects on the ground of all species. So that provides a lot of food for nestlings. Since Martins feed up in the sky(don't they?)would they Chase butterflies more than Mosquitos and other tiny High fliers? Some of the BG group will probably know... How much do you want to try the birds? DD

Kendra, I used to cut crescent entrances into my natural gourds. These were afull 3 inches wide across the bottom and they are 1 and 3\16 tall(1.188 to be exact) Well I noticed through binoculars while watching my martins enter these that they needed nowhere near the full 3 inches wide. The original crescent was developed by a guy in Florida to stop starlings and it works pretty good but starlings have been known to get through it especially when folks add porches outside for them to land on. This helps the starlings because it allows them to use their big ol' chicken legs to help push their way through. The original crescent is shaped just like a crescent moon kendra but as you can see mine is not. Once I started cutting down on the width and slightly raising the height from 1.188 to 1.205(closer to 1 and 7\32)I began to notice that the martins had a super easy time getting inside with or without a porch like in the video. At the same time the murdering starlings were having more trouble and believe me Kendra the starlings cannot(will not)get into this entrance and even porchless like this as you can see is easy as pie for the martins!! This entrance plate is available through S&K Manufacturing and my entrance is now incorporated into a new line of plastic gourds for martins also made by S&K. They are called the BO-11 and the BO-9 gourds and my entrance is called the clinger entrance but in these new gourds it is porched. Most folks like to see the martins hanging out on the porches is why but as you can see here the martins don't really need that porch as long as they have a place to prop their tail like on this natural gourd of mine. Now..Once I finally settled on the size the clinger entrance is today I tested it very thoroughly on all sizes of Purple Martins that nested here at my 120 plus pair colony. At the same time I tested it on all Starlings I caught in my Controller starling trap that is mounted next to a big tree about 180 feet from my martin gourd racks. See martins don't like their house\gourds near trees and that is how you keep from trapping the martins with a controller trap. Starlings on the other hand like a house near a tree and the tree branches nearly touch the side of my trap. I have never seen a martin land on it kendra but it is a starling's undoing. They simply have to check it out and once they enter the big ol' inviting 2 inch round hole it is the last hole they ever enter. This trap I have had now for 10 years has helped the native birds re-cover here. When I first moved here Starlings and House Sparrows creaked and cheeped everywhere around my place. The Bluebirds were few..the Red Headed Woodpeckers were nonexistent and the few martins I strted out with were in constant battles with both these foreign birds to survive. Well it is not that way anymore thnaks to the Spare-o-Door trap,my Controller trap,and now this cool entrance. There is a fine line between the largest male Purple Martin(they tend to be slightly larger than females)and the smallest female starling. That is the zone you must exploit in order to allow easy martin entry by all sizes of martins(male and female) yet stop even the smallest female starling and my clinger entrance does that so effectively and I can watch the martins do this and smile all day long because I know they are protected fully from their number one enemy..the European Starling. I hope that someday round holes for martins will be a thing of the past and just as the 1 and 1\2 entrance hole has saved the bluebirds from the starlings I want to see the clinger entrance do the same for the Purple Martins. It works so sweet kendra and all as you can see in the video. No starling that I have ever watched try to enter this has been able to. The fear of entrapment is created and they simply cannot get their ugly fat bellies inside because of the width at 2 and 5\16. It does not allow them the room to flatten out and squeeze in and it is so funny watching them try. They get up to their shoulders and then their chicken like big feet and legs end it for them. Martins are streamilned birds that are designed to zoom through the air after insects and they have small feet and legs designed for perching not walking. Because of this they simply land,tuck,and BINGO they are in!! I love it so much! By the way Kendra..I had 3 starlings in my trap the last two days as they are seeking nest sites now that spring is here in western Ky. Not one of them could come close to getting out of the clinger entrance I have mounted on the side of the holding cage of my trap. Not one. Now if this entrance will stop a trapped starling from exiting it is all the starling resistent entrance you will ever need for martins or bluebirds for that matter. I have some of these clinger entrances on my BB Boxes on my Bluebird trail and they work fine. Now if only we could find a way to make an entrance to keep House Sparrows out but unfortunately they are smaller than bluebirds or martins. Shame and thank you for the compliment on my entrance kendra..I am so proud of it and what it is starting to do for the Purple Martins in this country. They are worth protecting and my few years of designing,testing,and perfecting this cool entrance shape are paying off for the most beautiful swallow in the world. The All American God Among birds..the Amazing,Fast Flying,Rocket Diving Purple Martin!! Love them so much...Mike

Sounds promising! The Purple Martins down by the Morehead fountain park are nesting right now

What a treat! Thanks for sharing. I read such a discouraging article in the Chicago Tribune last week. It was about a bird tagging location near the Illinois/Wisconsin border that has been functioning for forty years. At first I thought the article said the number of birds had declined by ten to twenty percent, then...no, the number has declined TO ten to twenty percent of the migrating birds. They blame pollution and the declining habitat along migration routes. One of the tiny birds photographed had been recorded on migration from Northern Canada to South America. Our bird population has never come back more than a few percent from the die-off during avian flu a few years ago. I almost never see a crow or blue jay -- who thought I'd miss *them*?