The Purple Bird is dedicated to giving you great Purple Martin tips and product reviews.

Keys to Attracting Purple Martins to Your Backyard

Our Purple Martin website will be a great source of information for supplying Purple Martin products and advice. Here are a few "big picture" things to keep in mind when planning how to attract purple martins to your yard.

  • Wide Open Space. Purple Martins love wide open areas. To attract these birds, you will ideally need to be able to position their 'homes' in the middle of an area that has 30 to 50 feet of open area on all sides. This helps the birds find you. Plus, it gives additional comfort to the birds as they can keep an eye out for natural predators. Purple Martins especially love to be in areas with close access to water  (creek, bay, river, etc).
  • Purple Martins like humans. They seem to find comfort or safety being around human activity. You will find best success if you place your martin housing withing 100 feet of your own house.
  • Purple Martins need leaves, grass and feathers to build their nests. Having a 'stash' of this material around for them is great idea. We have some products on our site that will do just the trick.
  • Keep in mind that Purple Martins are communal in nature -- they like to live together. Mounting several 'apartments' or gourds together about 15-20 feet above ground will keep your birds coming back. Keep vines and wires away from the housing to cut down on predator access.
  • There will be competition for nesting materials from other birds, specifically house sparrows and starlings. Making sure your house entry hole is placed correctly will help. It should be 1/2 inch or less from the floor of the house with a height of exactly 13/16 inch tall. Also, agressively keep your martin houses clean of any nesting materials from these competiting birds.

Those are some basic tips for those who are ready to start attracting these wonderful birds!