I came across this resort-level birdhouse at Caribbean Beach this weekend, but you can actually find them all over Walt Disney World property—including at EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Magnolia Golf Course, Saratoga Springs, and here. This is actually all part of a very cool conservation project that Disney has undertaken with other environmental and conservationist groups for about 3 decades on behalf of the Purple Martin.
These lovely little birds were rendered more or less completely beholden to us humans over time because we’d build them homes to encourage them to nest nearby (they were useful for things like eating insects and alerting to predators) — and now east of the Rockies they rely pretty much entirely on human-made housing to raise their little bird families.
Every year, around mid-January, they fly from Brazil up to Florida. These reverse snow-birds take up residence in places like these high-rise hotels at Disney, make house, and, hopefully, renew their populations. Then, sometime around August, they’ll head back to Brazil.
Doesn’t seem like the worst lifestyle, honestly. And their temperaments seem to match it. According to allaboutbirds.org, “[p]utting up a Purple Martin house is like installing a miniature neighborhood in your backyard. In the East, dark, glossy-blue males and brown females will peer from the entrances and chirp from the rooftops all summer.”
I know we’re recreating dire wolves now but if we still have the real thing I think maybe we focus instead on keeping that around.
As part of its conservation efforts, Walt Disney World has been providing and maintaining this Purple Martin housing for almost 30 years. Cast Members will prepare the nests (sort of like moving into a partially furnished apartment, just up to you to add some final personal touches) and then, once the birds have settled in, monitor the bird hotels closely, tagging and tracking some to better understand their migration habits and populations, and then eventually keeping track of any eggs and new hatchlings.
This particular hotel is on the grounds at Caribbean Beach, where we’ve spent all of our week so far. The sun was setting behind it. You can see just a hint of the Skyliner moving slow and lazy in the background. And one Purple Martin was chilling on his front porch.
I took this with the Leica D-Lux 8, ~75mm equivalent, f/8.0, 1/4000 seconds [did I mention I was shooting directly into the sun?], ISO 200. Taken just so to get the starburst of sun through the structure. The purple portion was completely unplanned—the house was actually yellow so perhaps it absorbed that light and only the blue and red were left. I'd like to think I figured that out. In any case, it seems apropos given the bird we’ve been talking about. The flare on the upper-right wasn’t planned but it’s probably the other reason I chose this particular picture. I love a good light flare.