Northern Sky's Purple Martin Colony

The Buskas Bungalow

For many years, I have been trying to get these Alberta Martins to nest in various types of gourds. I have had very little success with them, this far north Martins want to nest in wooden housing. They would enter the gourds and take a look, but when it came time to nest, the females always chose the wooden housing. Gourds are very popular in the southern half of the USA, but up here NO WAY!

The reason is simple, after several years of conducting temperature tests on all type of houses and gourds, I learned the wooden houses hold far more heat through out our cool or sometimes cold evenings. In fact up to 6 or 8 C degrees more. In western Canada we need all the heat we can get during the night. The metal houses and gourds cooled down immediately after sunset, which is why the Martins like the cooler gourds in the southern USA.

A view of the opened Bungalow with slide out nest tray
Click on picture for larger version

Late in the season of 2006 I decided to replace several Gourds with these wooden Bungalows. The Martins took to them immediately and began roosting in them at night. These Bungalows are built to open easily from the front and use the same 7 x 11 1/2" slide out nest trays as my North Star house.

In 2007, the first nesting season using the bungalows, started off with my very first arriving female scout landing on the bungalow rack and checking them out. The bungalows filled 100% in the first season. My Martins loved them as you can see! They like having that 20 inches of space from their neighbour, but still in a close colony. I will be adding many more of these bungalows to my colony site in the future, they look great and are very easy to manage with the slide out nest trays.

The North Star houses and the Buskas Bungalows make a great combination, offering the Martins a variety of housing styles at my colony site. The nest trays are interchangeable with the North Star houses, which makes management quick and easy for me the landlord.

I will have the bungalows available for sale here, so you can contact me for a price if you wish. Shipping by Canada post or bus should be easy as they are more compact than the North Star house.

I will also have instructions on how I built the steel bungalow rack if you are interested, or you can design your own rack if you wish. The Bungalows weigh about 7 pounds / piece, so 12 of them weigh the same as a 12 compartment North Star house. My 2 3/8" steel pipe rack handles them easily.

-- Information and plans on the North Star Martin House --
-- Attracting Purple Martins to your Colony --
-- Managing a Purple Martin Colony in Alberta --
-- Supplemental Feeding of your Purple Martins --
-- Starling and Sparrow Control --
-- See Map to Northern Sky's and Country 9 --
-- Back to the Northern Sky's Purple Martin Colony --

Bob Buskas
R.R.2 Wetaskiwin
Alberta, Canada
T9A 1W9

Phone: (780) 352-2783

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