User:Markletp

Purple Martin

I'm not going to revert your entry again, as I don't want to start an edit war over this, but your assertion that all Purple Martins nest in artificial boxes, and that they do so because they're completely outcompeted by invasive species is not entirely correct. The following is from "Birds of North America", the definitive (and current) treatment of all breeding species in North America; it was originally published (and is now maintained and updated online) by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The entry for Purple Martins says

"Its conversion to human-made martin houses from ancestral nest sites—abandoned woodpecker holes in dead snags—was almost complete before 1900; only a few records of natural nestings east of the Rocky Mountains have been reported during the twentieth century. Yet in the mountain forests, deserts, and coastal areas of western North America, where the species is less common, it still nests almost exclusively in woodpecker holes or natural cavities. Few other species show such a marked or abrupt geographic difference in use of nest sites.

The bolded emphasis is mine. There is also strong evidence that eastern birds were already well on their way to becoming dependent on human-provided "houses" long before the arrival of Europeans (and thus long before the arrival of the non-native species they brought). I agree that invaders are causing problems for the species, but it's simplistic — and wrong — to keep the things you've added as they stand now. MeegsC | Talk 18:41, 14 March 2010 (UTC)