Amish Purple Martin Nests in my Backyard in 2019!

BandPostFemaleWholeComp-Ken Kostka, American Swallow Conservancy

This past summer (2019), I spotted a banded female Purple Martin nesting in my Purple Martin house here on Painter Ave. in Natrona Hts., PA so I got out the high-power spotting scope and was able to read the band. Turns out she was banded as a nestling in 2014 at the martin colony of my old friend Andy Troyer from Conneautville, PA, 83.3 miles NNW! This five year old female martin was raising her brood of five nestlings here in Natrona Heights. Purple Martins are large blue-black swallows, cousins to the famous swallows of Capistrano. (Photo of Andy and his son Adam from 1995 taken with permission of Andy Troyer. Photo by James R. Hill, III)

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Leg bands on a female Purple Martin

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Two nestlings beg for food from a  male Purple Martin