Community Articles (listed by posting date)
General News · 6th August 2026
Friends of Cortes Island
Friends of Cortes Island and Cortes Community Docks invite you to a free Purple Martin Nest box building workshop. Village Commons Pavilion, Tues Aug 11th 11am-12.30pm.
Purple Martins are North America’s largest swallow - with glossy blue-purple plumage and spectacular acrobatic flight.
Once common across coastal BC, Western Purple Martins declined to fewer than 10 breeding pairs by the 1980s after the loss of nesting habitat to industrial forestry and development. Thanks to volunteer-built nest boxes put up around the Salish Sea, their population has rebounded to more than 1,200 pairs.
Today, they rely almost entirely on artificial nest boxes near marine habitat. Ideal locations for nest boxes are pilings on docks and marinas. Cortes Community
Docks has already successfully installed some boxes, and we would like to add more to help build the Purple Martin population here on Cortes.
Come build a nest box and help the remarkable recovery of this beautiful bird.
Purple Martins are North America’s largest swallow - with glossy blue-purple plumage and spectacular acrobatic flight.
Once common across coastal BC, Western Purple Martins declined to fewer than 10 breeding pairs by the 1980s after the loss of nesting habitat to industrial forestry and development. Thanks to volunteer-built nest boxes put up around the Salish Sea, their population has rebounded to more than 1,200 pairs.
Today, they rely almost entirely on artificial nest boxes near marine habitat. Ideal locations for nest boxes are pilings on docks and marinas. Cortes Community
Docks has already successfully installed some boxes, and we would like to add more to help build the Purple Martin population here on Cortes.
Come build a nest box and help the remarkable recovery of this beautiful bird.