As many of you know, Seabrook Island Birders embarked on a new project this year – Purple Martin Landlords! After installing the equipment and learning as much as we could about these birds, and how to care for them, we proceeded to wait. It didn’t take long for migrating Purple Martins to find us, and we were off and running with our first colony.
We’ve been looking forward to our first fledlings and we are excited to announce the first Purple Martin to hatch has now fledged! And we have it on video! Meet “Violet”, our newest member of the Purple Martin colony!
In this first video, watch him/her get up the nerve to leave the safety of the nest.
In the second video, the reaction of the adult martins is interesting. I think mom was surprised to see him outside! Do you think she told him to go back in the gourd? Newly fledged martins will use the nesting gourds for a week or two, to escape storms or predators.
With one more nest to go, we hope to welcome more Purple Martin fledglings in the very near future!
Article and video by Gina Sanders