Aaron Templemire’s childhood home was surrounded by birds — peacocks, chickens, quail and fantail pigeons. They transformed the family’s one-acre property into a bird sanctuary. For as long as ...

GRAND HAVEN — The last pair of purple martins nesting in the gourds at Grand Haven State Park may have a tough time getting their young ready in time for the flight south to the Amazon rainforest.

Photo courtesy of Shawn Wyble The welcoming sign at the entrance to the Millers' farm. Photo courtesy of Shawn Wyble Now that's what I call a bird-friendly neighborhood! Mr. Miller's farm boasts over ...

Perry Vogel would be the "Purple Martin Man of Grand Forks" if such a title existed. Vogel, you see, is a purple martin landlord. The backyard of his south Grand Forks home hosts a colony that has ...

Every year, bird enthusiasts hang groups of plastic gourds for purple martins to nest in Erica Royer Look up during the summer in eastern or southeastern North America, and you may spot a purple ...

Editor's note: This is an occasional series from the Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater Baton Rouge. Landlords, it's time to get the houses ready for the purple martins making their way here.

Even before daybreak, you can hear them singing their happy sounding songs from inside their swinging gourds. The purple martin song. It will soon be their season. They return every year from their ...

My wife, Kathy Adams Clark, and I scurried out to the backyard the first week in January to clean our purple martin house. Because scouts for the largest and arguably the most handsome swallows in ...

In early February, Andrew and Carol Stamm scan the skies for the first signs that their purple martin colony will return to the nesting structures in their Harahan backyard. And each year like ...

Let’s start with a revelation that may deflate your justification for providing purple martins with housing support. It turns out the forever belief that purple martins are among the most important ...