Designer of the Excluder Entrance
 and Excluder Gourd

        John (Duke) Snyder lives in Western Pennsylvania and his interest in purple martins began in 1966.   His site has housed a purple martin colony since 1987.  In the 2005 season, his colony totaled 39 pair of purple martins and fledged 143 young.  He is a subpermittee bander of purple martins licensed through the Pennsylvania Game Commission and under the direction of Ken Kostka Banding Coordinator and a well-known purple martin preservationist and enthusiast. 
         In the spring of 1998, Duke witnessed a starling enter the nest compartment and kill his first purple martin scout.  He was determined to some how outwit the European Starling.  After "many" days of experimentation and observation, he designed and patented the first starling proof entry, named the Excluder.  He uses Excluder, Excluder II and the Modified Excluder entrances at his site (no round holes). 
         Duke has raised many bird house gourds in his back yard. He selected one natural gourd from his garden for a model when designing the shape and outside texture of the excluder gourd.