But the Europeans brought with them intensive logging for building and for fuel, and they introduced two invasive bird species – the European starling and the house sparrow – that would outcompete martins for nesting habitat.īecause of this competition and loss of habitat for nesting sites, the Eastern purple martin has adopted a preference for human-erected housing, which is unique among songbirds. Purple martin tower.Historically, the Eastern purple martin nested in natural cavities, like dead trees or “snags,” which provide essential habitat for a wide array of species. The idea caught on among the Europeans, perhaps inspired by the fact that the martins do in fact dine almost exclusively on flying insects. The birds would drive away crows, hawks and other species that pecked at drying animal hides, making the hides less useful. The indigenous people had developed a semi-domesticated relationship with the purple martins. During some of the first encounters between European settlers and Native Americans, the settlers observed gourds with small holes mounted on tall poles around the villages.
The close relationship between people and purple martins began long before Wade. Unfortunately, many of those structures are now unusable and have long since been abandoned by the birds. In yards and farms in virtually every state east of the Mississippi, you can still find many of Wade’s green and white houses for the purple martin. Weary of bites from the annoying insect, Americans bought and erected thousands of Wade’s bird houses.īecause purple martins prefer to nest together in colonies, the Wade-style bird houses look like little hotels. While Wade wildly overstated the bird’s mosquito consumption, the advertising campaign worked. Wade promoted his all-aluminum bird houses by marketing the purple martin as America’s favorite bird – because it consumed thousands of mosquitoes every day.
#Purple martin house location tv#
In the 1950s, a bird enthusiast and TV antenna manufacturer in Griggsville, Illinois, came up with the idea of building and selling houses for purple martins ( Progne subis).
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