Bird features

My Best Nest: A Purple Martin Story

Bird features

Learn about how you can help Chimney Swifts.

Learn about other North-American swallows

A Yellow-Crowned Night Heron eating a crawdad in Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. Its nictitating membrane is pulled across its eye to protect it from the spines of the crawdad.

A pair of Purple Martins. The male on the left has his nictitating membrane drawn. The female on the right does not.

An after-second-year male Purple Martin showing the distinctive blue color that gives the species its common name in Spanish, Golondrina Azul Americana, or American Blue Swallow.

Some people make their own martin houses.

An after-second-year female Purple Martin showing her characteristic dusky white breast feathers.

Martins sometimes twist into ridiculous poses while sunning!

The upper legs (crurals) of this after-second-year male Purple Martin are white.

The crurals of this Purple Martin are dark.

Purple Martins in Eastern North America have been preferentially nesting in man-made structures possibly for hundreds of years, thanks to Native Americans.

A tale of beginnings.

Go on to the next page