Purple Martins

[theantiquetiger]

They returned a couple months ago

martins2 by Theantiquetiger, on Flickr

[Hillbillygirl]

Beautiful avians.

[Iguanasan]

Woah! Now that's some awesome colour. Would love to see a side profile shot some time. Very cool.

[christopher steven b.]

Cool. Why do they have such different coloring ? These are male and female, perhaps ?

[JAS_Photo]

They really are purple! Do people build and put out bird houses for them?

[theantiquetiger]

The purple one is the male. They live in human made houses like this one. They are a type of sparrow but fly like hawks. They are very aero acrobats.

[Hillbillygirl]

The Purple Martin is actually part of the Swallow family, of which they are the largest of the North American species. Absolutely love the colour, and they are def a hard one to get in the right light to show.

[theantiquetiger]

The Purple Martin is actually part of the Swallow family

Sorry, thats what I meant. They are some crazy birds to watch play around.

[Mike Bons]

Nice shot AT!!

They really are purple! Do people build and put out bird houses for them?

I just finished researching purple martin bird houses, and as with many other native birds (such as bluebirds, tree swallows, etc) they have a particular landscape they like and a particular house, etc. As well, making these houses resistant to invasive species such as house sparrows and starlings is very important. Its amazing how much building the exact house, put at the exact height, facing the exact direction really increases your chance of attracting your target species.

[QuietOne]

My grandfather used to put out houses for them every year. I remember the houses, but not the birds. Probably because he was fixing them at the time, and I wasn't around when they went up - he lived in Michigan and we were living in California. Trips to see relatives were not frequent. Really cool colors, and they've got that stubborn "it's mine" look.