The Purple Martin is the largest swallow in North America, and the adult male is unique among the continent's swallows in being entirely glossy blue-black, shimmering purple in good light; females and young birds are duller, with grayish underparts. Graceful and powerful in flight, martins wheel and glide high over open country and water, catching flying insects on the wing and giving rich, liquid, gurgling calls that carry down from the sky.
In eastern North America the Purple Martin has become almost entirely dependent on people. Over centuries it shifted from nesting in natural cavities to using human-provided housing — multi-compartment "martin houses" and clusters of hollow gourds — so that today's eastern population nests almost exclusively in these colonies maintained by devoted "landlords." Michigan martins arrive in spring, raise their broods in these colonies through summer, then gather in large pre-migration roosts before departing for South America. Their reliance on human housing makes an active martin colony a genuine community effort.
Feeds entirely on flying insects caught on the wing — dragonflies, flies, beetles, wasps, winged ants, and many others — often foraging high in the air over open country and water. Contrary to popular belief it eats relatively few mosquitoes, taking instead a wide variety of larger daytime flying insects.
Not really. Despite the popular claim, martins feed mostly on larger daytime flying insects like dragonflies, beetles, flies, and wasps, and mosquitoes make up only a tiny part of their diet.
In eastern North America, Purple Martins have become almost completely dependent on human-provided housing — multi-room martin houses and hollow gourds — having largely given up natural cavities. Eastern colonies rely on people who put up and maintain the housing.
The adult male is the only North American swallow that is entirely glossy blue-black, gleaming purple in sunlight, with no pale underparts. Females and young birds are grayer below and can be trickier to identify.
First-year males are gray-bellied like females and gain the glossy blue-purple plumage in their second year, often showing scattered dark feathers in between. Colonies therefore contain birds in three distinguishable plumages.
A colony. Martins in the east nest almost entirely in human-supplied housing, so a colony is a shared apartment complex — and premigratory roosts in late summer can hold tens of thousands of birds.
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