Project MartinWatch
The Purple Martin Conservation Association’s Project MartinWatch is a North American continent-wide Citizen-Science project designed to help Purple Martin landlords better manage their colony as well as help the Purple Martin Conservation Association track the reproductive biology of Purple Martins. Information collected includes nesting dates, number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch, and how many nestlings survive. The data is used to study the current health of the Purple Martin population and determine how it may be changing over time as a result of habitat modification, climate change, and the introduction of non-native species.
You can become involved by establishing a martin colony of your own or teaming up with others to help monitor one of their colonies. At the end of the nesting season, submit your report to the PMCA and your observations will be added to those of thousands of other Project MartinWatch participants in a continually-growing database used by biologists to study Purple Martins.
The current dataset covers the fates of over 120,000 Purple Martin nests range-wide over the past twenty-five years. Researchers interested in using the Project MartinWatch dataset in their research should email research@purplemartin.org to discuss.
To find out more about the project including how to get involved check out the Project MartinWatch website.
Publications
Raleigh, D., Ray, J.D., Grisham, B.A., Siegrist, J. and Greene, D.U. (2019) Nest survival data confirm managed housing is an important component to the conservation of the eastern purple martin. Wildl. Soc. Bull., 43: 93-101. https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.941
, , , and . (2019) Timing to temperature: Egg‐laying dates respond to temperature and are under stronger selection at northern latitudes. Ecosphere 10( 12):e02974. 10.1002/ecs2.2974
, , . (2021) Support for a relationship between demography and modeled habitat suitability is scale dependent for the purple martin Progne subis. Journal of Animal Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13369
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