Increase your chances of attracting purple martins by deploying some of these life-sized, highly-detailed, purple martin decoys. Establishing a new colony is often difficult because purple martins are social or colonial nesters. Martins prefer the company of others and are reluctant to be the first to settle at a new site. Decoys are believed to increase the chances of attracting breeding Purple Martins by helping to create the illusion of genuine colony-site activity. This gives scouts the confidence to stay and nest.