Purple Martin Bird House

thingiverse

Meet the Eggloo 5000 Purple Martin home. Purple Martins are common north American, migratory, mosquito eating songbirds that prefer to nest in colonies. One peculiarity of the purple martin is that it only nests in a clean container. The bottom of this "gourd" is printed in place and sits in position like a utility worker hole cover. At the end of the nesting season just reach in and scoop out the used up nesting material and it's ready for next year's brood. The Eggloo 5000 can be mounted any number of ways. Five quarter inch holes at the top allow it to secured with a loop of wire, on a quarter inch shaft or as I prefer hanging off of a quarter inch eye bolt secured with a fender washer and nylon locking nut. The Eggloo 5000 comes in two varieties. The circular hole model is friendly to all small and medium song birds. The half moon hole model is designed to exclude European starlings, an invasive bird that competes with purple martins for nesting sites. I recommend trying both and if you have a starling problem, print more of the half moon Eggloos. The Eggloo 5000 is designed to drain and should offer good resistance to cracking from freezing precipitation. Each Eggloo 5000 prints with about half a kg spool of filament. For temperature control, water resistance and UV durability I recommend white PETG filament. I printed using a 0.6mm nozzle and 3 shells taking about 22 hours per print. My Eggloo 5000s print just fine without supports. I hope you enjoy the Eggloo 5000 and attract thriving colonies of martins. Please post photographs of your Eggloo's and report back on its durability over the years.