Purple Martin Forum

Thanks, I didn't know if it was that unusual. It was the first one I had ever seen.

Today several new pairs arrived, and one of them----I assume it was a female----had a snow-white breast. All of the females I've seen in the past have gray or light-gray breasts, but I've never seen one pure white like that. She? was with a mature male. Has anybody else seen this?

Blue Boy came back again today, and he went to the same compartment.

But then again, it might help that my neighbors have chickens. They seem to be more interested in swooping down at them.

Maybe I've been lucky----and knock on wood----but every time a hawk shows up, all of the birds in the neighborhood besides the martins gang up on it and chase it off. Hope that continues...

It is nice to have one with a unique look about him, since all of the other mature males look alike, so we can keep track of him. That was a good point about his descendants perhaps inheriting the blue tint, but so far, we haven't seen any like him.

Blue Boy is back again this year, and he's using the same compartment he and his mate take every year.

deancamp, blue boy is back again, and since you said you'd be interested in knowing if he went to the same cavity, he's using the same one he did the last few years.

This morning, I saw something for the first time in my 12 years of hosting purple martins----a squirrel running for its life across the yard as my martins and some sparrows were dive-bombing it. I've seen the martins ganging up to chase away hawks and falcons, but never a squirrel. And the sparrows ...

yes, thanks, SS. I didn't even see your link until it was mentioned. You definitely answered my dumb question.

You were congratulating me because I have a blue martin and am able to tell him apart from the others...well, now you have the same ability with Half Tail!

Maybe I've had too much time on my hands at home with what's been going on, but I was daydreaming and thought of a question (which might be a dumb one), but I'm asking it anyway): Do people provide housing for purple martins in South America when they go there for the winter? Yes, I know that martin...

One more try.

For some reason, only one photo appeared, although I atttached three.
Maybe the other two will show up on here.

Last year, when I posted that one of my martins had more of a blue tint to him than purple, nobody believed me.
Well, he came back this morning, and I took a few shots of him.
I'm glad it was April 2 instead of yesterday, or everybody would have thought it was an April Fool's joke.

We've have purple martin houses here in Perryville, MO, for eleven years now, and they usually first arrive in late March. Last year, they came in the middle of March, which was the earliest we've ever seen them. And now, today, March 8, we saw our first two on one of our houses----we can't believe ...

I figure it's just some kind of color mutation.

No, and it's not a tree swallow...we have plenty of them.
It looks like all of the other mature males, except that it has a blue sheen on its back instead of dark purple.

I put up a dozen tree swallow boxes this year and the little fighter jets are buzzing all over the yard now. They've never even looked at the martin housing, and although they squabble amongst themselves they'll perch with the martins without any trouble. If you put some up, make sure the boxes are...

Another question for all of you veteran landlords. Last year, we had a male martin that was bright blue. We figured that he was a juvenile and would be dark purple the next year like the other males. He returned this year, and he is still blue----although a somewhat-darker shade of blue now, and mor...