once in a lifetime observation

[Guest]

I was standing in my garden (which is 30 ' from our martin gourds) back in July when I witnessed a most remarkable behavior on the part of a female purple martin. I saw the bird fly overhead (about 15 ' up) and I noticed that she had some white gausey object in her bill. I saw her drop it and watched it spiral down. Then to my utter surprise, she dove down and grabbed it again. She flew up and dropped again. She let it drop again, then repeated the whole act one more time. I have never seen such a clear insrance of a bird playing before and I probably never will again. I feel fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time.

Diane Young

[Guest]

That is pretty neat. I have never seen anything like that. I used to throw crickets up for the martins and they really enjoyed that, sometimes I thought they would do it even if they were not hungry just to catch the stuff.

[Guest]

While I haven't seen martins playing (I have no doubt that they do), I've seen our martins engaged in some unusual antics.

One early evening during this season our martins were coming back to their complex, showing off with their usual gliding approaches. An adult female martin had landed on the porch railing of the complex and was in the process of stretching one wing when a subadult came in and "landed" on that same wing.

You could practically see the thought bubble form above the subadult's head that said "What the...?!" as the two birds tipped backwards off the complex. The female held fast to the perch railing, and the flailing subadult had a good hold of her wing, not sure what to do. The female wasn't too pleased, and was chirping harshly at the subadult, who either didn't comprehend the situation, or didn't care. Both birds looked ridiculous, all stretched out and flapping wildly!

Eventually the female let go, and the two of them dropped into open air. That seemed to snap the subadult back to reality, and they both flew off, with the female chasing after the subadult.

Then there was the time two martin males tag-teamed a starling that was perched out in the open. One had the starling's attention, while the other martin dove in from behind and struck the starling's head. I could hear the smack! from the porch, and the starling sure felt it! It flew away like it was drunk.

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Diane. Oh wow. I've never heard of PMs doing this. It is pretty common for Tree Swallows to do it though. They'll take a feather, go high with it, drop it, catch it, drop it, and keep doing this. I've had as many as four doing it here in my backyard at the same time. For the life of me, I can not think of any reason they would do this, except just for the fun of it. Of course birds aren't supposed to be that smart. ha ha ha. I really don't believe that. I think they're pretty intelligent, but we don't know how to measure their intelligence. CUL Lou

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Lou, I have seen martins play with feathers & leaves. They drop it and then catch it again. I imagine everything plays sometimes.

[iluvbirds]

I saw mine do this several times when I was flinging crickets. They only did it with the live ones, and not the ones that I had thawed out. I don't know if they were playing with them, or trying to kill them before they ate them. It was really neat to watch... .... Pat

[Laverne]

I watched a parent martin bring in a big bug and offer it to its young. Instead of taking it, they would jerk their heads back inside and leave Mom or Dad holding the big insect. There were a couple of times I saw the adult leave with the insect, fly up a ways, drop it and then retrieve it before it hit the ground. Several times wings would drop... Then he/she would attempt to feed it again. I think the parent was just dressing the insect a little to make it easier for the (already full and finicky) young to consume.

I'm so glad that many of you are enjoying "The Purple Martin Show" as much as I do...