The Purple Martin

Download or read book The Purple Martin written by Robin W. Doughty and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the surest harbingers of spring is the return of Purple Martins to the houses that people put up across the United States to attract these companionable birds. The bustle of courting, rearing nestlings, and fledging young martins fills the summer months, until approaching autumn lures the martins to their winter range in South America. Then human landlords refurbish their martin houses and wait for another round of this much-anticipated yearly cycle. Robin Doughty and Rob Fergus here present a concise natural history of the bird and its centuries-long companionship with people. They discuss the martin's scientific classification and names, its migration and range, and its family life. They relate stories of how Native Americans and European colonists attracted Purple Martins and how Americans throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries helped martins survive the loss of natural nesting sites by providing houses for them.