Stephens City Martins have flown south, but will begin returning from Brazil in March

The approximately 60 nesting pairs of Purple Martins leave the Autumn Glen HOA in Stephens City by mid-August and migrate to their winter quarters in Brazil.

Every October, the Autumn Glen volunteer Bird Management Team removes the 10 bird condominiums from their 15-foot aluminum poles on the HOA’s beautifully landscaped 52 acres and the houses are meticulously cleaned, tarped, and stored for the winter.

Bird poles are disassembled, cleaned, and stored away for winter. Photos courtesy Mark Gunderman

Martins breed in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and then winter in Brazil. Most adults do not seek new breeding sites but will return to the exact same site from the previous year. Yearling Martins will typically colonize new breeding sites. The older adult Martins (called scouts) will begin to return to their Stephens City nesting sites in late March.

Bird condominiums are inventoried, cleaned, and tarped.

The Martins eat moths, flying beetles, dragonflies, mosquitoes, and squash bugs, just to name a few. They will also keep away blackbirds and crows and are welcomed in backyards across the United States. Martins as all swallows, are aerial insectivores, feeding on insects in flight.