A large colonial nesting facility for Purple Martins can be a stylish architectural addition to your property, and is available on the PMCA website. There is true beauty in the flight of Purple Martins. The Scout Arrival Map showing the dates of the northward migration of the first Purple Martins (courtesy of the PMCA).

Up north it may seem early, but the first Purple Martins have already arrived as far north as Oklahoma City, Memphis, and Durham, North Carolina, but there’s still time to attract your own Purple Martin nesting colony. Information provided by the Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA) shows that as February has progressed, more and more Purple Martin “scouts” have been arriving in our southeastern states, although sightings are still pretty widely dispersed, except in parts of Florida, southern Louisiana, and eastern Texas – and if you live in the northern half of the United States or anywhere in Canada, you have even more time to prepare – but the time is now.

The Purple Martin Conservation Association provides a wealth of information on their website, and one of the gems you may appreciate most is the opportunity to monitor Purple Martin migration north as the first martin scouts arrive in the United States and Canada throughout the spring by checking in at https://www.purplemartin.org/research/8/scout-arrival-study/ (scroll down the page to reach the interactive map).

Below the Scout Arrival Map, there is also an excellent map that shows the timing of the first Purple Martins throughout their nesting range. The PMCA explains that the term “scout” refers to the first martin – male or female – observed back at an active colony nesting site. Scouts are the oldest individuals in the population that migrate north as early as weather allows.

As for starting a Purple Martin nesting colony, first be aware that being a Purple Martin landlord is a real investment of your time and attention during the nesting season. You will need to combat the efforts of non-native birds from usurping nesting cavities at your colony site; and it can be an expensive initial cost to purchase a Purple Martin apartment, barn, hotel, or mansion. It may also take more than one season to get Purple Martins to utilize your martin nesting abode, so patience is required too.

Given all that, the Purple Martin Conservation Association provides a wealth of information on their website, and considering they also offer all kinds of Purple Martin products they can be a one-stop shopping place for anything you need to start, fix, improve, or expand your own Purple Martin setup at https://www.purplemartin.org/shop/

The PMCA also has excellent citizen science projects you can participate in, including the aforementioned Scout Arrival Study, and Project MartinWatch at https://www.purplemartin.org/research/18/project-martinwatch/

And that’s not all – also check into Project Martin Roost, the Banding program, and Geolocator-tracking at https://www.purplemartin.org/research/20/geolocators-and-gps/ Scroll down the martin tracking information on the page to find a most interesting map with dates that show the spring and fall migration routes and winter movements of Purple Martins to appreciate the rest of the story when Purple Martins migrate south of the border for most of the year – to inhabit the sky above the Amazon basin and much of the continent of South America.

To learn more about a favorite backyard species, digest the Purple Martin Conservation Association’s website a page at a time, as your interests dictate, at https://www.purplemartin.org/ Spring is on the way!