Western Purple Martin Foundation

Plumage peculiarities:

• Purple Martins aren’t always purple!
• The adult males are a dark iridescent purple, which is what gives the species the name. In French, they are known as “black swallows.”
• Females are a brownish/greyish bird with a few iridescent purple feathers on the back!
• Young males look like females but have some speckled purple throat patches.

 An adult male showing-off the "purple" feathers that give this species its name. Photo by Samuelle Simard-Provençal. 

Food facts:

• Purple martins are aerial insectivores. What does this mean? It means that these birds feed on insects almost exclusively while flying!
• What do they eat? Large flying insects like dragonflies, moths, and beetles are a favourite meal, but many smaller insects will do as well. A dragonfly is a particularly good food for parents to bring back to their nestlings.

A female martin bringing back a dragonfly to her nestlings. Photo by Samuelle Simard-Provençal. 

Nesting neatness:

• Historically, Purple Martins would have nested in natural cavities, but with human disturbance, these cavities are no longer available to suit the needs of the martins.
• Purple Martins in BC rely almost entirely by human made nest boxes and nest condos.
• Nests are made up of all sorts of things! Grasses, twigs, leaves, wood chips, and sometimes even shells.
• Purple Martins lay nests generally between 4-7 eggs. The female is responsible for the vast majority of incubation, and after about 17 days of that, the young hatch!
• The nestlings will stay in the nest for another 28 days, when they can finally fly on their own and fledge the nest.

Nestlings waiting to be delivered food from their parents. Photo by Samuelle Simard-Provençal.

Travel tidbits:

• Where do martins do in the winter? South America! Every year, they make their way as far as southern Brazil.
• Western Purple Martins reach their northern breeding limit on Vancouver Island, at the north end of the Georgia Basin.