No encore: Nashville Symphony will chop trees where huge purple martin brood has been roosting

In 2020, small, iridescent birds called purple martins descended upon the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, drawing large crowds and scientific interest.

The next summer, more birds — an estimated 100,000 — stopped in Nashville during their annual layover to South America.

“It was an amazing thing to witness…to be in the middle of it and feel the breeze generated from so many birds flying overhead,” said Laura Cook, a bird researcher with Warner Park Nature Center and longtime conservationist. “Everyone who went through there wanted to know what was going on and why.”

Alan Schmierer Flickr

Purple martins are migratory birds and aerial insectivores.

Now, the Nashville Symphony is opting to remove the trees where the purple martins were roosting. Because, while mesmerizing for many folks, the birds’ latest two-month stay damaged the center’s trees and left its historic limestone coated with poop.

The symphony subsequently faced a $60,000 cleanup, which was partially covered by the Nature Conservancy and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.

“The cleanup was so expensive because we had to power wash the entire Schermerhorn Symphony Center building,” said Nashville Symphony CEO Alan Valentine. “The amount of droppings was pretty overwhelming.”

The symphony plans to cut down 41 trees by early April, and they’ll wait one to two years before planting new ones, like cherry and magnolia trees, to make the birds find a new spot. They’re still finalizing the plans, which are being guided by local conservation groups and arborists.

Back in 2020, the symphony hired a pest control company to fog out the birds and later canceled the job after learning the purplish animals were a federally-protected species.

Valentine said the situation has been hard, as the symphony never intended on removing its landscaping in this fashion — nor did it sign up to host birds every year.

Local conservationists have expressed sympathy, for the symphony’s situation, and disappointment.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN News

An estimated 100,000 purple martins roosted in downtown Nashville last summer as part of their southward migration.

“That’s yet another example of Nashville being robbed of something that makes it unique,” said Jim Gregory, of the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps.

He said it also reflects the larger issue of local tree canopy loss, considering that the birds came to the symphony after their last patch of trees was cut down.

The other big disappointment is that Nashville will lose a rare opportunity for education about birds and their migration, according to Cook.

“It always makes me happy when people find a creative way to coexist with nature. I’m sad that that didn’t happen here,” Cook said.

Cook placed transmitters on some purple martins last year, and she hopes to track more birds this year — but there’s no telling where the birds might end up, or if they’ll remain in such great numbers.

Purple martins are migratory songbirds and a type of aerial insectivore, or a bird that eats insects while flying. This group of birds has declined by 32 percent in the past 50 years.