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 Purple martins are among our most beautiful and entertaining spring and summer birds. The scouts (first arrivals) arrive in late February to find their very same old nesting areas and to protect them from others. Nesting is well under way by late March.
The males are very dark iridescent blue-black, while the females are dark above with a light chest and underparts.
These graceful members of the swallow family take easily to human made nesting boxes. Once the nest is made, the female lays her eggs and stays on the nest until the young are able to fly. The male returns to the nest each day to help with care of the young and feeding the female. She does fly about during the day.
These birds are insect feeders, and can be seen capturing bugs on the wing all day long. It is believed that they feed primarily on mosquitoes, but judging from where they feed and the time of day, it is assumed that mosquitoes are a minor part of their diet.
Each evening, the male goes to the Causeway at the edge of the lake, arriving about 8 p.m. He then roosts under the Causeway, returning to his family the next morning. After the young are able to fly, they and the female begin to roost under the Causeway, though they all return each day to their nesting box to feed, soar, and chatter away.
Things really get exciting by July when not only are all the local Purple Martins and their young meeting each evening for the roost, but thousands of birds from the far north as beginning to arrive and prepare for their August migratory flight to the Amazon, where they spend the winter. By mid-July, it is estimated that about 100,000 Purple Martins congregate at each end of the Causeway each evening, arriving about 8 p.m., and dispersing the next morning.
If you have never watched this aerial show, you should park in the parking garage at Lakeway Towers, and walk to the viewing stand provided at the end of the Causeway. The birds appear suddenly at about 8-8:15 p.m. each evening, fly about in swirls, and go under and out, under and out, until they finally come to rest out of sight under the bridge
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