The Amazing Purple Martin

The beautiful purple martin is the largest North American swallow and the only species of martin found on this continent. While spending a portion of every spring and summer in backyards, this determined blue black bird migrates each winter to the Amazon River basin in South America. Each spring, purple martins faithfully return to the backyards of "landlords" who put up martin housing for the breeding season. Adult male and female martins are the first to arrive, looking for the best nesting sites. Martins will often return to their previous successful home site. Four to six weeks later, birds raised from the previous year, known as subadults, arrive. These subadults are the birds that will colonize nests in new locations. Those who wish to attract the martins must put up houses before the subadults arrive.

Purple martins are incapable of excavating their own cavities and are almost dependant on humans for housing. The Indians started the use of hollow gourds hung near one another to attract purple martins. Today, gourds are still a popular type of housing for the purple martin in addition to an assortment of martin houses and condos. Martins seem to be attracted to white housing, probably due to its reflective qualities, which keep the housing cooler.

Purple martins rarely eat mosquitoes, but feast on beetles, wasps, ants, bees, moths, and butterflies. They eat hundreds of insects each day.