BRAINERD — “It all began in the early 1970s” said Larry Leonard, of Brainerd. “I built a purple martin house and put it up. Before I had the last nut tightened on the pole, martins were checking out ...

"I'm part bird," John Gerwin chuckled, as he guided a group of volunteers and children through the process of tracking the Purple Martin bird at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh. "I'm part bird ...

The purple martin is the largest swallow in North America. Males are all dark, glossy blue-black; females and immatures duller above and grayish below. The purple martin is an extremely popular and ...

They’re topped by what looks like old-fashioned TV antennas, ringed with plastic gourd-shaped cavities and elevated off the ground on aluminum poles. These are condos for purple martins, a type of ...

Perry Vogel would be the "Purple Martin Man of Grand Forks" if such a title existed. Vogel, you see, is a purple martin landlord. The backyard of his south Grand Forks home hosts a colony that has ...

The first purple martins of the year have been spotted in South Dakota, marking the start of spring migration. These birds travel up to 7,000 miles from Brazil to their breeding grounds in North ...

Dick Nikolai of Appleton spent his professional career dedicated to Wisconsin's wildlife, including animals tiny and large, abundant and endangered and game and non-game. But in retirement he's ...

Every year, bird enthusiasts hang groups of plastic gourds for purple martins to nest in Erica Royer Look up during the summer in eastern or southeastern North America, and you may spot a purple ...

A hot, humid summer day is replete with sounds of nature that remind us of the freedom of being outdoors. One of these sounds is that of the purple martin, a deep purplish-black swallow that raises ...

Robin Donaldson would not call herself a “birder” in the classic sense of someone who observes and identifies wild birds in their habitats. But last spring, the Ashland industrial engineer flew to ...