A Martin House 
Is Not a Home 
People erect elaborate accommodations for nesting 
purple martins to share. But the birds haven’t 
learned to be good neighbors 
by Erik J. Bitterbaum and Charles R. Brown 
John James Audubon once re- 
marked that he could always judge 
the quality of a roadside inn by the 
condition of the purple martin house 
erected on the inn’s signboard. Good 
bird accommodations usually meant 
good people accommodations. 
Audubon’s observation illustrates 
the longstanding interest that people 
have had in the large, purplish swal- 
lows known as martins. The first nest 
boxes in this country were gourds hung 
by Indians to attract martins. In the 
1800s, slaves in the South continued 
the practice of hanging out gourds. 
The assumption that martins will 
chase many species of hawks provided 
a utilitarian motive for such early mar- 
tin houses: I offer you a nesting place; 
you protect my poultry. We feel, how- 
ever, that the martin’s propensity to 
chase birds of prey has been greatly 
exaggerated. They do, however, con- 
sume large amounts of insects. 
Today, in neighborhoods across the 
eastern United States, martin houses 
of all makes and models can be found. 
Birdhouse manufacturers, in promot- 
Occupying the topmost tier of a 
multilevel birdhouse, these purple 
martin nestlings are protected from 
the interference of neighboring 
juveniles by the roofline that 
separates the nest compartments. 
Alfred A Francescom 
ing their product, proclaim that the 
purple martin is America’s favorite 
backyard bird. This claim may be 
more hype than reality, but the purple 
martin is probably the only North 
American bird to have its own news- 
paper. In the Nature Society News, 
published by a birdhouse-manufactur- 
ing firm in Griggsville, Illinois, martin 
fanciers report on their experiences 
with these birds. 
The purple martin ( Progne subis) 
is one of five species of the New World 
genus Progne. The other four spe- 
cies — the gray-breasted, Caribbean, 
southern, and brown-chested mar- 
tins — are found almost exclusively in 
the American tropics. 
Male purple martins, when about 
one and a half years old. attain a deep, 
glossy purple plumage over the entire 
body and are the only dark-bellied 
swallows of North America. Females, 
while having purple backs and crowns, 
are gray on the throat, breast, and 
belly. A first-year male resembles a 
female, except for a generally darker 
back and a lined patch of purple on 
its throat, breast, and belly. 
Purple martins have a wide but 
patchy range throughout eastern 
North America. They also breed along 
the California coast, in the southwest- 
ern desert of the United States, and 
reportedly, in northern Mexico but are 
largely absent from the Rocky Moun- 
tains except for small, local montane 
populations. Because martin houses 
are not prevalent in the West, the 
65 
