Purple Martin
Progne subis
Purple Martin · Staten Island · 5 July 2026
A Purple Martin at a colony on Staten Island in July, the largest swallow in North America and, east of the Rockies, a bird that nests almost entirely in housing put up for it. This colony lives in a martin house on a pole beside the marsh.
Glossy blue-black all over on an adult male; females and young birds are duller, with a pale grey collar and belly. The dependency on people goes back centuries: Native American communities were hanging hollow gourds for martins long before European settlement, and the birds seem to have shifted away from natural tree cavities as a result.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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