The Nature Pages

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Back to Nature Pages
      The Purple Martin
      by Robin Doughty and Rob Fergus
      University of Texas Press, 2002

      Purple Martin Conservation Association
       
      The Purple Martin is one of the most widely distributed and easily distinguished birds in the Americas, ranging from southern Canada to southern Brazil. A common breeding bird throughout the southern U.S., it also nests along the Atlantic seaboard and in small colonies as far north as Maine, Alberta and British Columbia.  

      The Purple Marttin Society      		 The bird's migratory pattern takes it southward from August to mid-October and northward from January through April by way of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean coast of Central America.

      Search our selection of new, used and out-of-print books.
      Robin Doughty and Rob Fergus, a pair of Texans with a lifelong interest in wildlife conservation and bird-human interactions, teamed up to produce this unique natural history of the Purple Martin. Not only do they provide details on the bird's habits, diet, habitats, behavior and family life, but also the history of its relations with people.

      "This book is about a special relationship -- the regard, affection, and understanding we have increasingly come to express about a bird that responds more and more to our concern for its survival," they explain in their introduction.

      "The Purple Martin is a wild bird that thrives around human habitations and, like other swallows, has responded to land clearance and settlement by adjusting to farms, towns, and even cities... We find martins companionable, useful, and ebullient. In the United States, they are harbingers of glad tidings -- the shift of the season -- from winter cold to the life-giving warmth of spring."
      Illustrated with color photos, this concise volume discusses, in separate chapters, the migration and range of the Purple Martin, its lifestyle and lifespan, protection of the bird and the use of martin houses to attract and promote the species. 
      Back to Nature Pages
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~