Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Progne subis, com­monly known as pur­ple mar­tins, in­hab­its the Nearc­tic re­gion and can be found across North and South Amer­ica. They are mi­gra­tory birds that breed in North and Cen­tral Amer­ica and over­win­ter in South Amer­ica. The north­ern ex­tent of the breed­ing range in­cludes the Cana­dian provinces of Al­berta, Saskatchewan, and south­ern Man­i­toba. Pur­ple mar­tins breed across the east­ern half of the United States, and also may be found along the Pa­cific coast­line in­clud­ing the en­tire Baja Penin­sula. (Braun­ing, 1992; Brown, 1997; John­ston, 1966)

Pur­ple mar­tins over­win­ter across most of South Amer­ica in­clud­ing the coun­tries of Colom­bia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suri­name, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bo­livia, Paraguay and Ar­gentina. Their win­ter range has been recorded to be South Amer­i­can low­lands any­where east of the Andes Moun­tains. Con­cen­trated pop­u­la­tions have been found to win­ter in Bo­livia and some provinces of Brazil. There have been some records of pur­ple mar­tin pop­u­la­tions found in the British Isles, but these birds rarely mi­grate out­side of the Amer­i­cas. (Brown, 1997)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Pur­ple mar­tins pre­fer open spaces that are sit­u­ated close to any water source, as they are in­sec­ti­vores and are at­tracted to the large pop­u­la­tions of in­sects near wet­lands, swamps, and wet mead­ows. Pur­ple mar­tins also seem to avoid high el­e­va­tions, for in­stance the Ap­palachian Moun­tains, but may be found at el­e­va­tions from less than 100 m to 4,000 m. Due to col­o­niza­tion and human in­ter­ac­tions in their nat­ural habi­tats, pur­ple mar­tins are now ac­cus­tomed to human in­ter­ac­tion and live in close prox­im­ity with hu­mans today. They tend to find shel­ter in urban set­tle­ments, often liv­ing in spe­cially made bird­houses called "mar­tin houses". His­tor­i­cally, this species in­hab­ited for­est edges, mon­tane forests, and deserts and nested in aban­doned wood­pecker cav­i­ties. Some pop­u­la­tions that breed in the west­ern United States con­tinue to live in these nat­ural set­tings, how­ever most uti­lize man-made mar­tin houses. (Braun­ing, 1992; Brown, 1997)

Dur­ing mi­gra­tion, these birds stopover in a va­ri­ety of habi­tats. They usu­ally fly over coastal lines and cross the Gulf of Mex­ico. They have been recorded in low­lands and the high moun­tain ranges of Venezuela and Co­lum­bia. They are often seen in cities and open areas while mi­grat­ing south. Win­ter­ing habi­tats in­clude rain­forests, agri­cul­tural areas, and clear­ings of South Amer­ica. They may also re­side in urban plazas. (Braun­ing, 1992; Brown, 1997)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• mountains

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams
• temporary pools

• Wetlands
• marsh
• swamp
• bog

• Other Habitat Features
• urban
• suburban
• agricultural
• riparian

• Range elevation

  <100 to 4000 m

  to 13123.36 ft

• Average elevation

  2600 m

  8530.18 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Pur­ple mar­tins are the largest North Amer­i­can swal­low, mea­sur­ing 20.3 cm long and weigh­ing 56 g on av­er­age. Their wingspan is about 45.7 cm. Males are a bit larger, en­tirely shiny, and deep pur­ple or al­most black in col­oration. Pur­ple mar­tin males have less shine on their black­ish wings and tails com­pared to their heads and backs. Fe­males are over­all gray or gray-blue with darker wings and crown feath­ers, and fea­ture a white breast smudged with vary­ing de­grees of gray. West­ern fe­males are over­all paler than east­ern. Pur­ple mar­tins have a dark, black-brown bill and the av­er­age length is 8.2 mm for males and 8.5 mm for fe­males. Their gape tends to be yel­low in young birds and a dull or­angey-brown color in adults. Their legs and feet have a black brown col­oration and their eyes are dark brown. (Brown, 1997; Lay­ton, 1972)

Ju­ve­nile pur­ple mar­tins are over­all gray to black with a white belly and gray-streaked breast. In ju­ve­niles, there is a much clearer line be­tween their gray throats and white bel­lies com­pared to fe­males which will have a pri­mar­ily gray belly. In flight, a ju­ve­nile's tail may have a nar­row, slight fork whereas adult tails are dis­tinctly forked and wider. (Brown, 1997; Lay­ton, 1972)

Pop­u­la­tions re­sid­ing in the south­west United States ex­hibit lighter col­oration than pur­ple mar­tins in other re­gions. This lighter col­oration is hy­poth­e­sized to be an adap­ta­tion to the desert cli­mate and serves to ab­sorb less heat. (Lay­ton, 1972; Wade, 1966)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

• Range mass

  10 to 55 g

  0.35 to 1.94 oz

• Average mass

  48 g

  1.69 oz

• Range length

  18 to 22 cm

  7.09 to 8.66 in

• Average length

  20.3 cm

  7.99 in

• Range wingspan

  39 to 43 cm

  15.35 to 16.93 in

• Range basal metabolic rate

  2.6 KJ*g^-1*day^-1 to 4.0 KJ*g^-1*day^-1 cm3.O2/g/hr

• Average basal metabolic rate

  3.0 KJ*g^-1*day^-1 cm3.O2/g/hr

Re­pro­duc­tion

Pur­ple mar­tins are so­cially monog­a­mous, but form a pair bond that rarely ex­tends to sub­se­quent sea­sons. In Texas, 5% of pur­ple mar­tins that oc­cu­pied more than one nest prac­ticed polygamy. Males ar­rive at the breed­ing grounds first and will se­lect nest cav­i­ties where he will dis­play to po­ten­tial mates. The male often se­lects two nest sites for fe­males to choose from. Males are very ter­ri­to­r­ial and will ag­gres­sively de­fend nest sites from other males. Un­paired males will per­form an aer­ial dis­play to any nearby fe­male. This dis­play be­gins with the male fly­ing out from his nest in a wide arc, then swoop­ing back into the cav­ity, pop­ping out his head and singing. Re­search has sug­gested that de­spite these ef­forts, fe­males are more in­ter­ested in the qual­ity of a nest site than a male's dis­play­ing abil­ity. Once a pair has formed, the male de­fends the nest cav­ity as well as his mate. Al­though the pair is ag­gres­sive to­wards for­eign in­trud­ers, they tol­er­ate each other and will con­tinue to tol­er­ate each other in sub­se­quent years even when they are paired with other mates. (Brown, 1979; Brown, 1997; John­ston and Hardy, 1962)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Gen­er­ally pur­ple mar­tins spend their win­ters in South Amer­ica just past the Andes, and start re­turn­ing to their north­ern breed­ing grounds as early as Jan­u­ary 1. They slowly move north­wards pro­gress­ing gen­er­ally 3 to 5 de­grees lat­i­tude (330 to to 550 km) every half a month and they reach their north­ern lim­its around May 1. Adult males often re­turn first, fol­lowed shortly by adult fe­males while sub-adults re­turn a cou­ple weeks after. This gen­eral breed­ing pat­tern has been found to be true for a gen­er­al­ized pop­u­la­tion, ex­cept the non-colo­nial Saguaro desert broods. These pur­ple mar­tins ar­rive early May, which is about two and a half months later than any other colony at the same lat­i­tude. Rea­sons for the dif­fer­ence in ar­rival pat­terns have not yet been dis­cov­ered. (John­ston and Hardy, 1962; Mor­ton and Der­rick­son, 1990)

After a pair bond is formed, the mar­tins can start build­ing a nest. Nest build­ing starts about a month be­fore the pair in­tends to lay the eggs. Com­mon ma­te­ri­als used to build nests are green leaves, grass, sticks, paper, mud, and feath­ers. The use of green leaves as nest­ing ma­te­ri­als is poorly un­der­stood, but there are cur­rently many hy­pothe­ses. The fe­male per­forms most of the con­struc­tion, while the male gath­ers ma­te­ri­als and de­fends the cav­ity from other mar­tins. His­tor­i­cally, pur­ple mar­tins used nat­ural cav­i­ties to nest in but due to de­for­esta­tion and the re­moval of dead trees, these birds mostly nest within man-made "mar­tin houses" that can house an en­tire colony of mar­tins. (Alsop III, 2002)

The breed­ing sea­son for pur­ple mar­tins starts in May and will last until June. A pur­ple mar­tin nest can have any­where from 3 to 8 white, oval eggs but the av­er­age amount of eggs laid is 5. These eggs are usu­ally about 2.4 by 1.7 cm in size and are then in­cu­bated for 15 to 18 days. The chicks fledge after 26 to 31 days and travel in a fam­ily group. The group re­turns to sleep at the nest for sev­eral days. At 7 to 10 days after fledg­ing the young are able to sur­vive on their own and will dis­perse. Young pur­ple mar­tins can re­pro­duce in the first sub­se­quent breed­ing sea­son. (Alsop III, 2002; Braun­ing, 1992; Brown, 1979; Brown, 1997; Lay­ton, 1972)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Purple martins generally breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Purple martin breeding season occurs during the months of May and June.

• Range eggs per season

  3 to 8

• Average eggs per season

  4 to 5

• Average eggs per season

  4

  AnAge

• Range time to hatching

  15 to 18 days

• Range fledging age

  26 to 31 days

• Range time to independence

  33 to 41 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  <1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  <1 years

After the eggs are laid, the fe­male is the pri­mary in­cu­ba­tor. In­cu­ba­tion lasts from 15 to 18 days. When the fe­male leaves the nest, the male will pro­ceed in in­cu­bat­ing the eggs him­self but this hap­pens in­fre­quently. As soon as the chicks hatch, brood­ing be­gins and usu­ally lasts until the tenth day. The fe­male alone broods the young. Pur­ple mar­tin chicks are al­tri­cial and are com­pletely de­pen­dent upon the par­ents for sur­vival. (Alsop III, 2002; Brown, 1980; Brown, 1997; Lay­ton, 1972)

The young are fed within hours of hatch­ing and will con­tinue to be fed for 5 to 7 days after the young fledge. Both the male and fe­male feed the brood. Feed­ing oc­curs by re­gur­gi­tat­ing food and trans­fer­ring it into the mouths of the young one by one. As the brood gets older the feed­ing ses­sions be­come more fre­quent and reaches its peak when the young start gain­ing the most weight, which oc­curs around days 17 to 21. The feed­ing be­comes so reg­u­lar that it may occur every 30 sec­onds. Par­ents en­sure that the food is the proper size to be swal­lowed and if the pieces are too large and swal­low­ing does not occur in­stantly, the food is re­moved from their mouths. Par­ents keep the nest clean by eat­ing the fecal sacs and en­cour­ag­ing the young to defe­cate by pok­ing at their cloa­cal re­gion. After two weeks of de­vel­op­ment, the fe­male pur­ple mar­tin will cease to sleep in the same com­part­ment as the nestlings, be­cause less fre­quent night brood­ing is nec­es­sary. (Alsop III, 2002; Brown, 1980; Brown, 1997; Lay­ton, 1972)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• male parental care
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The longevity of pur­ple mar­tins range from 0 to 13 years and nine months. Pur­ple mar­tin mor­tal­ity is often the re­sult of se­vere weather. Three to four days of se­vere weather can lead to in­sect num­bers dras­ti­cally de­clin­ing. If there is a lack of food, pur­ple mar­tins can­not sur­vive and this often re­sults in pop­u­la­tion de­cline. An­other hin­drance to long life ex­pectancy is often body par­a­sites. Pur­ple mar­tins host a pro­to­zoan blood par­a­site Haemo­pro­teus prognei. This par­a­site can have dis­as­trous ef­fects on the sur­viv­ing rate of first year birds dur­ing the win­ter and mi­gra­tion pe­riod. (Brown, 1997; Lay­ton, 1972)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  13.75 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  165 months

  Bird Banding Laboratory

Be­hav­ior

Pur­ple mar­tins are mi­gra­tory birds that travel from cen­tral North Amer­ica to north­ern South Amer­ica to breed and over­win­ter, re­spec­tively. They are ac­tive dur­ing the day and are most ac­tive at dawn and dusk. They are colo­nial birds that live to­gether in large colonies. They ei­ther choose to fly around in pairs or stay in their colo­nial groups. At the end of the sum­mer the whole colony com­mutes back to South Amer­ica. These com­mu­nal flights home can in­clude tens of thou­sands of birds. (Alsop III, 2002; John­ston and Hardy, 1962)

Pur­ple mar­tins have shown dis­tinct group be­hav­ior. Mar­tin pairs are monog­a­mous and very ter­ri­to­r­ial, but when they join a colony they can show strong group-ori­en­ta­tion and pro­tec­tive­ness of the colony's ter­ri­tory. The colony so­cial­izes to­gether by ex­plor­ing the en­vi­ron­ment around them. This in­cludes vis­it­ing other colonies, scop­ing out po­ten­tial food sources, and vis­it­ing nearby streams and swamps. The so­cial­iz­ing groups con­sist of 3 or more pur­ple mar­tins. Pur­ple mar­tins for­age to­gether by hunt­ing in large flocks. When the flocks do find food they call the rest of the colony to come feed by mak­ing dis­tinct sounds. (Alsop III, 2002; John­ston and Hardy, 1962)

Pur­ple mar­tins also dis­play syn­chrony when they live in large colonies. Colo­nial pur­ple mar­tins work to­gether in an ef­fort to in­crease the re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess of the colony. Larger colonies have more suc­cess at achiev­ing syn­chrony, be­cause they are usu­ally made up of ma­ture birds, where as smaller colonies are made up of younger adults with less ex­pe­ri­ence. Syn­chrony is re­lated to age and is re­flected bet­ter in birds of sim­i­lar age. A colony of pur­ple mar­tins will achieve syn­chrony bet­ter if the birds are sim­i­lar in age. Colo­nial liv­ing does carry the risks of in­creased dis­ease trans­mis­sion and re­source com­pe­ti­tion. (Alsop III, 2002; John­ston and Hardy, 1962)

Pur­ple mar­tins are known to act ag­gres­sively when they are threat­ened. For in­stance, they will de­fend them­selves by peck­ing and flap­ping their wings try­ing to en­cour­age the un­wanted vis­i­tor to leave. When pur­ple mar­tins are threat­ened they take on a “Hor­i­zon­tal Threat Pos­ture”, ori­en­tat­ing their bod­ies so that it runs par­al­lel with the sur­face and press­ing their feath­ers down close to their bod­ies. Often when threat­ened, pur­ple mar­tins alert other mar­tins by singing. An­other de­fense mech­a­nism pur­ple mar­tins re­sort to is gap­ing. Gap­ing is when a pur­ple mar­tin opens its mouth wide and di­rects it to the po­ten­tial threat. Pur­ple mar­tins re­sort to lung­ing as an in­tim­i­da­tion ef­fect and will also try to in­tim­i­date a threat by bill snap­ping. (Alsop III, 2002; John­ston and Hardy, 1962)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• flies
• glides
• diurnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• migratory
• territorial
• social
• colonial

• Range territory size

  2.8 to 664 km^2

Home Range

Pur­ple mar­tins often re­turn to the same nest­ing site where they had lived the pre­vi­ous year. There is no in­for­ma­tion on how far these birds will travel while for­ag­ing. Pur­ple mar­tins have the abil­ity to fly far dis­tances to get to their nests. This sug­gests that these birds must have a large home range. Pur­ple mar­tins are known to travel from 2.8 to 664 km to get back to their nests. (Brown, 1997)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Pur­ple mar­tins com­mu­ni­cate vo­cally and vi­su­ally. Pur­ple mar­tins have eleven iden­ti­fied vo­cal­iza­tions that they use for dif­fer­ent oc­ca­sions like mat­ing, warn­ing, and teach­ing the young dur­ing fledg­ing. Male pur­ple mar­tins use singing and vi­sual dis­plays to at­tract po­ten­tial fe­male mates. Ju­ve­nile pur­ple mar­tins re­sort to ‘choo-choo’ calls to at­tract their par­ents’ at­ten­tion if pro­tec­tion is needed. Par­ents use ju­ve­nile 'choo-choo' calls to as­sem­ble their broods and re­turn them safely to the nest. Fe­male pur­ple mar­tins use the ‘choo’ call to lead their young to and from group­ings areas dur­ing the fledg­ing pe­riod. Pur­ple mar­tins only re­sort to ‘zwarck’ calls when they need to send a high in­ten­sity alarm, and it is often ac­com­pa­nied by the birds div­ing straight down to­wards the in­vader. Male pur­ple mar­tins use ‘hee-hee’ vo­cal­iza­tions to fight off in­trud­ers. ‘Zweet’ calls are used to show in­traspe­cific ex­cite­ment, as well as send an alarm to warn other pur­ple mar­tins of a po­ten­tial threat and to en­cour­age them to fly away. Pur­ple mar­tins use ‘cher’ calls to com­mu­ni­cate daily and will use ‘chor­tle’ calls in high ex­cite­ment sit­u­a­tions. Males at­tract fe­males by singing ‘croak songs’ as well as to warn off un­mated males from en­ter­ing their ter­ri­tory. Dur­ing courtship males make a click­ing sound by snap­ping their lower and upper mandibles to­gether. The last vo­cal­iza­tion male pur­ple mar­tins use are ‘sub­songs’ and are heard dur­ing feed­ing and pre-mi­gra­tory pe­ri­ods. ‘Sub­songs’ are used to com­mu­ni­cate with other pur­ple mar­tins while so­cial­iz­ing to­gether. Pur­ple mar­tin males that are part of a sta­ble colony often per­form a 'dawn­song' which in­clude a va­ri­ety of sounds early in the morn­ing. (Brown, 1978; Brown, 1984; Brown, 1997; John­ston and Hardy, 1962; Mor­ton, 1985)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Other Communication Modes
• duets
• choruses

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Pur­ple mar­tins are pri­mar­ily in­sec­ti­vores. They cap­ture food in flight and rarely glean in­sects from fo­liage or the ground. Pur­ple mar­tins pre­fer eat­ing fruit flies (Cer­ati­tis), mos­qui­toes (Culi­ci­dae), wasps (Polistes), bee­tles (Coleoptera), ants (Formi­ci­dae), grasshop­pers (Or­thoptera), ci­cadas (Ci­ca­di­dae) as well as drag­on­flies (Anisoptera). Pur­ple mar­tins may con­sume 400 flies or 2000 mos­qui­toes in a day. (Brown, 1997; Camp­bell Fin­lay, 1976; Lay­ton, 1972)

Pur­ple mar­tins rarely eat spi­ders Araneida and pre­fer any other in­sect in­stead. Gen­er­ally pur­ple mar­tin diets con­sists of 23% wasps and bees (Hy­menoptera), 16% flies, 15% as­sorted bugs like stink bugs (Pen­tato­mi­dae) and black bugs (Thyre­o­cori­dae), and 12% were bee­tles (On­thoph­a­gus). Pur­ple mar­tins also eat but­ter­flies and moths (Lep­i­doptera) but drag­on­flies seem to be pre­ferred. Young pur­ple mar­tins pre­fer eat­ing drag­on­flies over other in­sects while adults show no spe­cific pref­er­ence to drag­on­flies. (Brown, 1997; Camp­bell Fin­lay, 1976; Lay­ton, 1972)

Pur­ple mar­tins are greatly de­pen­dent on the weather, since it has a pro­found ef­fect on in­sect pop­u­la­tions. At low tem­per­a­tures in­sect food sources tend to de­crease, where as at high tem­per­a­ture pur­ple mar­tins have an abun­dance of food. High ve­loc­ity winds also de­crease food avail­abil­ity. Pur­ple mar­tins tend to eat bee­tles through­out all the sea­sons, but flies tend to dis­ap­pear from their diet in late Au­gust. In­sect pop­u­la­tions tend to be at its high­est dur­ing Au­gust which co­in­cides with greater nu­tri­tional need in prepa­ra­tion for fall mi­gra­tion. It is dur­ing Au­gust that pur­ple mar­tins must hoard up food and nu­tri­ents for the long flight back south. These birds con­sume water in flight by skim­ming their lower beaks across any water source. (Brown, 1997; Camp­bell Fin­lay, 1976; Lay­ton, 1972)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

Pre­da­tion

The most com­mon preda­tors for pur­ple mar­tins are owls and snakes which prey on both adults and ju­ve­niles. Owls at­tack while the birds are in­side the nest. Owls grab the nest and shake it, which dis­ori­en­tates the pur­ple mar­tin. Pur­ple mar­tins then try to slip out of the en­trance hole, but owls grabs them with their claw. Hu­mans can help pre­vent these owl at­tacks by at­tach­ing curved rods over nest en­trances so that owls can­not perch atop the mar­tin houses. Owls have also been known to reach their claws into mar­tin houses to grab pur­ple mar­tins. (Brown, 1997; Kostka, 2000; Lay­ton, 1972)

Preda­tors like snakes or rac­coons are able to climb the bird house poles and make their way to the en­trance cav­i­ties. They pull out any adult birds and then pro­ceed to eat the eggs. The snakes that tend to prey on pur­ple mar­tins are usu­ally non-poi­so­nous and often climb up the poles and eat both the eggs and young. Rat snakes are the most com­mon snake preda­tors. Hawks and blue herons are the only preda­tors that prey on pur­ple mar­tins in the air. Do­mes­tic cats prey on pur­ple mar­tins when they are on the ground in search of nest­ing ma­te­r­ial. Squir­rels also prey on pur­ple mar­tins by climb­ing up the nest and en­ter­ing the cav­ity. Squir­rels kill the young, break up all the eggs and can even oc­cupy the nest to raise their own young. (Brown, 1997; Kostka, 2000; Lay­ton, 1972)

One anti-pre­da­tion be­hav­ior shown by pur­ple mar­tins is vig­i­lant nest clean­ing. Pur­ple mar­tin par­ents will eat fecal sacs and en­cour­age ju­ve­nile birds to defe­cate by pok­ing at their cloa­cal re­gion. The feces will be ei­ther con­sumed or re­moved from the nest by drop­ping them out­side. The elim­i­na­tion of feces and fecal sacs al­lows for pro­tec­tion, since the scent trails would be re­moved. (Brown, 1997; Kostka, 2000; Lay­ton, 1972)

Pur­ple mar­tins re­spond to preda­tor at­tacks by send­ing the 'zweet' call. 'Zweet' calls are used to warn other pur­ple mar­tins of the threat or to en­cour­age them to fly away. Pur­ple mar­tins often dive bomb their at­tacker. Pur­ple mar­tin colonies have no co­or­di­nated re­sponse to preda­tors. They do not all at­tack the preda­tor but do as­sem­ble as a crowd to con­fuse preda­tors and make it dif­fi­cult to focus on one bird. The only birds that do at­tack the preda­tor are the own­ers of a threat­ened nest. Pur­ple mar­tins will gen­er­ally stay out of the preda­tor’s way un­less the preda­tor comes within a few me­ters of their nest and young. Then pur­ple mar­tin adults have been known to at­tack the preda­tor. Pur­ple mar­tins ben­e­fit from liv­ing in large colonies, be­cause it adds to their pro­tec­tion and sta­bil­ity. Large colonies are able to de­tect preda­tors faster, thereby de­creas­ing pre­da­tion. (Brown, 1997; Kostka, 2000; Lay­ton, 1972)

• Known Predators

  • owls (Strigiformes)
  • hawks (Accipitridae)
  • magpies (Pica)
  • crows (Corvus)
  • gulls (Larus)
  • rat snakes (Colubridae)
  • house cats (Felis domesticus)
  • blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata)
  • raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • blue herons (Ardea herodias)
  • squirrels (Sciuridae)
  • snakes (Serpentes)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Pur­ple mar­tins play roles as preda­tor, prey, com­peti­tor, and host. Pur­ple mar­tins are in­sec­tiv­o­rous and are known to be ef­fec­tive pest con­trollers. Pur­ple mar­tins are preyed upon by many species and also serve as a host to sev­eral species of par­a­sites. Pur­ple mar­tin pop­u­la­tions have been greatly af­fected by mite par­a­sites, specif­i­cally Der­manys­sus prognephilus that live in­side their nests. These blood-feed­ing par­a­sites are able to de­crease clutch size and an out­break may lead to colony aban­don­ment. Other par­a­sites in­clude ticks, bee­tles, louse­flies, fleas, and bowflies. (Brown, 1997; Kostka, 2000; Lay­ton, 1972; Moss and Camin, 1970; Wade, 1966)

Pur­ple mar­tins have to com­pete for nest­ing sites with house spar­rows and Eu­ro­pean star­lings. Star­lings often cor­ner pur­ple mar­tins in their own nest cav­i­ties where fight­ing re­sults and often ends in death. This com­pe­ti­tion is par­tic­u­larly un­for­tu­nate, as both house spar­rows and Eu­ro­pean star­lings are in­va­sive species in the United States and often out-com­pete na­tive pur­ple mar­tins for nest­ing habi­tat. (Brown, 1997; Kostka, 2000; Lay­ton, 1972; Moss and Camin, 1970; Wade, 1966)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hu­mans ben­e­fit largely from the in­sec­tiv­o­rous food habits of pur­ple mar­tins. Pur­ple mar­tins con­sume large quan­ti­ties of pest species in­clud­ing flies, stink bugs, clover wee­vil bee­tles, and mos­qui­toes. (Wade, 1966)

• Positive Impacts
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of pur­ple mar­tins on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The IUCN Red List has listed pur­ple mar­tins as a species of least con­cern. The United States Fed­eral list has listed pur­ples mar­tins as being a species of con­cern. Cur­rently sev­eral groups are work­ing on con­serv­ing the nat­ural habi­tat of pur­ple mar­tins. Under the Michi­gan Spe­cial An­i­mal list, pur­ple mar­tins are not in dan­ger. Over­all, pur­ple mar­tins have sta­ble pop­u­la­tion num­bers and in­habit a wide ge­o­graph­i­cal range. In Canada, pur­ple mar­tin pop­u­la­tions have seen some de­cline, and are cur­rently con­sid­ered at risk in British Co­lum­bia. Local pop­u­la­tions have suf­fered greatly from weather re­lated mor­tal­i­ties in the north­ern edges of the breed­ing range. Pur­ple mar­tins are also de­clin­ing due to the com­pe­ti­tion for nest­ing sites. Pur­ple mar­tins com­pete with in­va­sive house spar­rows and Eu­ro­pean star­lings for nest­ing sites. Cur­rently in British Co­lum­bia they are set­ting up spe­cial nest­ing boxes in the hope of sus­tain­ing the re­main­ing pop­u­la­tion. (Brown, 1997; Fraser, et al., 1997)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  Protected

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Na­dine Sny­man (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, Au­gus­tana Cam­pus, Doris Audet (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, Au­gus­tana Cam­pus, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects, Cather­ine Kent (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

U.S De­part­ment of Agri­cul­ture. Pur­ple Mar­tin Bird­house. 204,523. New York, NY: Ar­mond In­dus­tries, Inc.. 1971.

Alsop III, F. 2002. Pur­ple Mar­tin. Pp. "464" in R Green­berg, J Hamil­ton, eds. Birds of Canada, Vol. I, 1st Edi­tion. Toronto Ont.: South­ern lights Cus­tom Pub­lish­ing.

Braun­ing, D. 1992. Atlas of Breed­ing Birds in Penn­syl­va­nia. Pitts­burgh: Uni­ver­sity of Pitts­burgh Press.

Brown, C. 1978. Post-Fledg­ing Be­hav­ior of Pur­ple Mar­tins. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 90/3: "376-385". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 01, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​4161087.

Brown, C. 1980. Sleep­ing Be­hav­ior of Pur­ple Mar­tins. The Con­dor, 82/2: "170-175". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 01, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​1367472.

Brown, C. 1979. Ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity in the Pur­ple Mar­tin. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 91/4: "583-593". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 01, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​4161272.

Brown, C. 1997. Birds Of North Amer­ica. Philadel­phia, PA: The Amer­i­can Or­nithol­o­gists/ Union and The Acad­emy of Nat­ural Sci­ences.

Brown, C. 1984. Vo­cal­iza­tions of the Pur­ple Mar­tin. The Con­dor, 86/4: 433-442. Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 03, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​1366823.

Camp­bell Fin­lay, J. 1976. Some Ef­fects of Weather on Pur­ple Mar­tin Ac­tiv­ity. The Auk, 93/2: "231-244". Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 31, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​4085041.

Davis, J., C. Brown. 1999. Costs Of Colo­nial­ity And The Ef­fect Of Colony Size On Re­pro­duc­tive Suc­cess In Pur­ple Mar­tins. The Con­dor, 101/4: "737-745". Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 16, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​1370060.

Fraser, D., C. Sid­dle, D. Cop­ley, E. Wal­ters. 1997. The Re­turn of the Pur­ple Mar­tin in British Co­lum­bia. Wildlife Branch, British Co­lum­bia Min­istry of En­vi­ron­ment, Lands and Parks, 1: "279-282". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 07, 2010 at http://​www.​env.​gov.​bc.​ca/​wld/​documents/​ce07fraser2.​pdf.

John­ston, R. 1966. The Adap­tive Basis of Ge­o­graphic Vari­a­tion in Color of The Pur­ple Mar­tin. The Con­dor, 68/3: "219-228". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 07, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​1365555.

John­ston, R., J. Hardy. 1962. Be­hav­ior of the Pur­ple Mar­tin. The Wil­son Bul­letin, Vol 64, No. 3: "243-262". Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 25, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​4159068.

Kostka, K. 2000. Owl Guards for Gourds: A Way to Pro­tect Mar­tin Gourds from Aer­ial Preda­tors. Pur­ple Mar­tin Up­date, 9/4: "1".

Lay­ton, R. 1972. The Pur­ple Mar­tin. Jack­son, Mis­sisippi: Na­ture Books Pub­lish­ers.

Mor­ton, E. 1985. Vocal Im­i­ta­tion in a Cap­tive Pur­ple Mar­tin. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 97/3: "392-395". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 01, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​4162123.

Mor­ton, E., K. Der­rick­son. 1990. The Bi­o­log­i­cal Sig­nif­i­cance Of Age-spe­cific Re­turn Sched­ules In Breed­ing Pur­ple Mar­tins. The Con­dor, 92: "1040-1050". Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 25, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​pss/​1368740.

Moss, W., J. Camin. 1970. Nest Par­a­sitism, Pro­duc­tiv­ity, and Clutch Size in Pur­ple Mar­tins. Sci­ence, 168/3934: "1000-1003".

Stutch­bury, B., J. Hill III, P. Krame, S. Rush, S. Tarof. 2009. Sex And Age-Spe­cific An­nual Sur­vival In A Neotrop­i­cal Mi­gra­tory Song­bird, The Pur­ple Mar­tin (Progne Subis). The Auk, 126/2: "278-287".

Turner, A. 1985. Swal­lows. Pp. "332-335" in C Per­rins, A Mid­dle­ton, eds. The En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Birds, Vol. I, I Edi­tion. New York: Facts on File.

Wade, J. 1966. What You Should Know About The Pur­ple Mar­tin. Grig­gsville, Illi­nois: J. L. Wade.

Wag­ner, R., M. Schug, E. Mor­ton. 1996. Con­di­tion-de­pen­dent con­trol of pa­ter­nity by fe­male pur­ple mar­tins: im­pli­ca­tions for colo­nial­ity. Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy and So­cio­bi­ol­ogy, 38/6: "379-389".

Williams, J. 1987. Field Me­tab­o­lism and Food Con­sump­tion of Sa­van­nah Spar­rows dur­ing the Breed­ing Sea­son. The Auk, 104/2: "277-289". Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 01, 2010 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​4087034.