Purple martin

The purple martin (Progne subis) is the largest NorthAmerican swallow. These aerial acrobats have speed andagility in ight, and when approaching their housing, willdive from the sky at great speeds with their wings tucked.

1 Description and taxonomyPurplemartins are a kind of swallow, of the genus Progne.Like other members of this genus, they are larger thanmost of the other swallows. The average length from billto tail is 20 cm (7.9 in). Adults have a slightly forkedtail. Adult males are entirely black with glossy steel bluesheen, the only swallow in North America with such col-oration. Adult females are dark on top with some steelblue sheen, and lighter underparts. Subadult females looksimilar to adult females minus the steel blue sheen andbrowner on the back. Subadult males look very much likefemales, but solid black feathers emerge on their chestin a blotchy, random pattern as they molt to their adultplumage.[2]

This species was rst described by Linnaeus in his Sys-tema naturae in 1758 as Hirundo subis.[3] The species ofthis genus are very closely related, and some view the pur-ple martin, gray-breasted martin, snowy-bellied martin,and southern martin, as a superspecies.[4]

1.1 Subspecies P. s. subis, is the nominate form, with the typicalfeatures of the species, breeds in eastern and mid-western North America.

P. s. hesperia of the Mexico and the southwesternUnited States, is distinguished primarily by its nest-ing habits.

P. s. arboricola of western mountains is large withfemales paler on underparts.

1.2 Distribution and habitatPurple martins breeding range is throughout temperateNorth America. Their breeding habitat is open areasacross eastern North America, and also some locationson the west coast from British Columbia to Mexico.[5]Martins make their nests in cavities, either natural or ar-ticial. In many places, humans put up real or articialhollow gourds, or houses for martins, especially in the

Fledglings in Oklahoma, United States

east, where purple martins are almost entirely dependenton such structures. As a result, this subspecies typicallybreeds in colonies located in proximity to people, evenwithin cities and towns. This makes their distributionpatchy, as they are usually absent from areas where nonest sites are provided. Western birds often make use ofnatural cavities such as old woodpecker holes in trees orsaguaro cacti.[2][4]

The purple martin migrates to the Amazon basin in win-ter. Its winter range extends into Ecuador[6] but does notseem to ascend far up the Andean foothills.The rst record of this species in Europe was a single birdon Lewis, Scotland, on 56 September 2004, and the sec-ond was on the Azores on 6 September 2004.

2 Conservation statusPurple martins suered a severe population crash in the20th century widely linked to the release and spreadof European starlings in North America. Starlings andhouse sparrows compete with martins for nest cavities.Where purple martins once gathered by the thousands,by the 1980s they had all but disappeared. [7]

2.1 Relationship with humans

The population of eastern purple martins (nominate formP. s. subis) is dependent on articial martin houses ofwood or aluminum and fake plastic gourds, supplied byindividuals and organizations fond of the bird. This tra-

1

2 3 BEHAVIOR

Adults around gourds and nest boxes in a garden in Tulsa, Ok-lahoma, United States

Nest boxes at Nepean Sailing Club in Nepean, Ontario, Canada

dition was in place even before the population crash; Na-tive Americans are said to have hollowed out gourds anderected them for this purpose. The situation requires on-going maintenance, as European starlings and house spar-rows compete with martins as cavity-nesters, and willght with martins over nest sites. Starlings have evenbeen known to kill purple martins, especially nestlingyoung, and house sparrows have been known to evict pur-ple martins from their nests. Thus, unmonitored purplemartin houses are often overtaken by more aggressive,non-native species.[2] Purple martin proponents are mo-tivated by the concern that the purple martin would likelyvanish from eastern North America were it not for thisassistance.[8]

3 Behavior

3.1 Migration

Wintering in South America, purple martins migrate toNorth America in spring to breed. Spring migration is

somewhat staggered, with arrivals in southern areas suchas Florida and Texas in January, but showing up in thenorthern United States in April and in Canada as late asMay. Males usually arrive at a site before females.[2]

Fall migration is also staggered, as birds head south whenthe breeding season is over. Some birds leave as early asJuly and others stay as late as October. Martins generallymigrate over land, through Mexico and Central America.When not breeding, martins form large ocks and roosttogether in great numbers. This behavior begins just priorto the southern migration and continues on the winteringgrounds.[2]

3.2 Breeding

Eggs and small chicks in a nest box in Oklahoma, United States

Males arrive in breeding sites before females, and estab-lish their territory. A territory can consist of several po-tential nest sites. After forming a pair, both the male andfemale inspect available nest sites. This process is com-plicated by the fact that articial nest sites could be houseswith many rooms, clustered gourds, or single gourds. Thenest is made inside the cavity of such articial structuresand retains a somewhat at appearance. The nest is astructure of primarily three levels: the rst level acts as afoundation and is usually made up of twigs, mud, smallpebbles and in at least a few reported cases, small rivermollusk shells were used; the second level of the nest ismade up of grasses,ner smaller twigs; the third level ofconstruction composing the nest, is a small compressionusually lined with fresh green leaves where the eggs arelaid. Three to six eggs are laid, and the female is themain incubator, with some help from the male. Purplemartins are generally known to raise only a single brood.Fledging, when the young leave the nest, occurs at aboutone month, after which the parent continue to feed theedgling young.[2]

33.3 DietPurple martins are aerial insectivores, meaning that theycatch insects from the air. The birds are agile hunters andeat a variety of winged insects. Rarely, they will come tothe ground to eat insects. They usually y relatively high,so, contrary to popular opinion, mosquitoes do not form alarge part of their diet. [2] Recent research, however, doesindicate that the Purple Martin feeds on invasive re ants(Solenopsis invicta) and that they may make up a signi-cant portion of their diet.[9]

3.4 VocalizationPurple martins are fairly noisy, chirping and makingsounds that have been described as chortles, rattles, andcroaks.[4] The various calls are said to be throaty andrich and can be rendered as tchew-wew, pew pew, choo,cher, zweet and zwrack. The males have a gurgling andguttural courtship song, a dawn song, and even a subsongused at the end of the breeding season.[4][10] Tapes of pur-ple martin song are sold to attract martins to newly estab-lished birdhouses.

4 See also Tree swallow - many similar characteristics Barn swallow - these swallows may be attracted topurple martin houses" and thus confused with pur-ple martins

5 Footnotes[1] BirdLife International (2012). "Progne subis". IUCN Red

List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. InternationalUnion for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 Novem-ber 2013.

[2] Brown, Charles R. Purple Martin (Progne subis), TheBirds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.).. Ithaca:Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 1 November 2009.

[3] Linnaeus (1758

[4] Turner, Angela K.; Rose, Chris (1989). Swallows &Mar-tins. Boston: Houghton Miin. pp. 7, 123126. ISBN0-395-51174-7.

[5] See AOU (2000) for details.

[6] Guayas and Orellana Provinces: Cisneros-Heredia(2006).

[7] Hunn, Eugene S. (1982). Birding in Seattle and KingCounty. Seattle Audubon Society. pp. 107108. ISBN0914516051.

[8] http://purplemartin.org/main/history.html

[9] Helms IV, Jackson A., Bridge, Eli S., Godfrey, Aaron P,and Ames, Tayna. (2015): The Purple Martin Update.Fire Ant Exterminators. 24-27.

[10] Peterson (1980): p.202

6 References American Ornithologists Union (AOU) (2000).Forty-second supplement to the American Or-nithologists Union Check-list of North AmericanBirds. Auk 117(3): 847858. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117[0847:FSSTTA]2.0.CO;2

(Latin) Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema naturaeper regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines,genera, species, cum characteribus, dierentiis, syn-onymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata.Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii). p. 192.

Cisneros-Heredia, Diego F. (2006). Informacinsobre la distribucin de algunas especies de aves deEcuador. ["Information on the distribution of somespecies of birds of Ecuador"]. Boletn de la SociedadAntioquea de Ornitologa 16(1): 7-16. [Spanishwith English abstract] PDF fulltext

Doughty, Robin and Rob Fergus (2002). The PurpleMartin. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71615-5

Peterson, Roger Tory (1980). A Completely NewGuide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central NorthAmerica (4th ed.). Houghton Miin, Boston. ISBN99975-1-436-X

Stokes, Donald and Lillian & Brown, Justin L.(1997). Stokes Purple Martin Book. Little, Brown& Co (Canada) Limited. ISBN 978-0-316-81702-8

7 External links Purple Martin Conservation Association The Nature Society purple martin monthly publica-tion and information

The Purple Martin Society, NA Photo of purple martin with dragony Stamps (for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) atbird-stamps.org

Purple Martin videos, photos, and sounds at the In-ternet Bird Collection

How to Help Purple Martins - National AudubonSociety

4 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

Purple Martin at Hinterlands Whos Who (Environ-ment Canada & The Canadian Wildlife Federation)

Purple Martin Bird Sound at Florida Museum ofNatural History

Purple Martin photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel Uni-versity)

Purple martins at Lake Murray, South Carolina

58 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses8.1 Text

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Description and taxonomySubspeciesDistribution and habitat

Conservation statusRelationship with humans

BehaviorMigrationBreedingDietVocalization

See alsoFootnotesReferencesExternal linksText and image sources, contributors, and licensesTextImagesContent license