Stoll’s Purple Martin Book
Purple Martins are arguably the most attractive members of the swallow family. These lovely songbirds have dark black feathers with purplish iridescence. Not just known for their exotic good looks, they have many ardent human fans because their diet consists exclusively of flying insects.
In addition to keeping pesky insect populations under control, their mystique is due to their unique repertoire of songs, and their consistent lifestyle habits. Victor Stoll is an expert landlord of these songbirds, and he has maintained the largest colony of Purple Martins in North America. At his current home in Tennessee, he has 729 nesting pairs!
Stoll has lived in Belize, in Central America, where he established colonies of Grey-breasted Martins, native to that continent. From his early childhood in Michigan, Stoll and his family maintained Purple Martin housing, to keep the migrating birds coming back each spring.
Compiling 70+ years’ experience and passion into Stoll’s Purple Martin Book, Victor Stoll shares his fascination and talents in an easy-to-read handbook. It’s a guide filled with everything a Purple Martin landlord needs to know, from novice to expert. This helpful insider’s guide will inform you of all the lifestyle habits of Martins, including their migrating times and patterns, nesting and mating rituals, and how to identify and stave off their predators.
Crisp, gorgeous four-color photographs are included throughout Stoll’s Purple Martin Book. They include ample views of the birds themselves, as well as the variety of gourds and multi-compartment homes that will attract them and keep them migrating back each spring.
In addition to photos, Stoll explains the care and maintenance of the Martin houses, and he offers explicit details about where to place them on your property, so they’ll be instantly recognizable to the scouts returning each spring to claim territory for their colonies that will soon follow.
Stoll’s Purple Martin Book is written in a tone that is simple and friendly, and it’s suitable for all ages of readers. Although it contains a small amount of technical and scientific terminology and data, it is anything but boring. There is information in this handbook that will fascinate anyone who has an interest in nature and the unusual lives of migrating birds. Purple Martins in particular have interesting mating and brooding habits that are addictive to follow, once a colony has established itself on your property.
Purists will delight in growing their own gourds to dry and suspend from high wires to house families of Martins. Martins also are happy to take up residence in multi-unit homes with perches outside for public visiting. These monogamous birds will chirp and squawk and fight to protect their families, but they always seem to settle their arguments by nighttime. They start their days with a dawn song that begins a couple of hours before sunrise.
Annually, the Stolls host MartinFest, a two-day celebration on their Tennessee farm that attracts up to 500 Martin enthusiasts each June.
