Purple Love

We purchased our first, farm-store Purple Martin house back in 2020. Just days after erecting the red-barn style house, Purple Martins moved in. Since then, each year the number of Purple Martins that come to our place to raise their broods grows. In response, each year we have added more housing. At this time, we have the 12 unit Red-Barn, 6 inexpensive gourds, the 8 unit Green-roof house, 8 better quality gourds, and this Spring we added 6 more even fancier gourds to the array of housing options for our growing colony.

Unlike a few other species that can become a bit annoying on my auditory nerves by the end of the season, I never tire of the Purple Martins’ constant chortling. That’s a pretty significant statement since, as a social species they vocalize from early morning to dusk. Add that to the fact that there are over 40 birds (Robert thinks that number is actually over 50) and their housing is within 30 feet of my office windows, so I can hear them all day long, I’d say I’m smitten these amazing swallows.

This year, I first heard and then spotted a couple of Purple Matins on March 12. On March 16 while running the “Merlin,” the Bird ID app detected their songs and responded with a red-dot next to the species, which means uncommon/rare for that time of year. I thought it seemed early to see them so soon! This species winters in Brazil – that’s 5000 miles from here! Perhaps they had a decent tail wind!

Yesterday (3/24/24) I was able to get out and film. I’ve posted some photos are below.

This is not a species that necessarily mates for life, and I’ve read some references that sometimes a female mates with more than one male. Still, in a few of these photos my human brain (and heart) sees old married couples expressing, “it’s so nice to be back with you, dear.”

Even my husband said, “aww… ” when he saw the header picture, so I had to embellish it with hearts.