Purple Martin Sounds

Overview
ID info
Life History
Maps
Sounds

Song
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New York, June 23, 2019Recorded by Matthew D. Medler / Macaulay Library
Song
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California, April 19, 1956Recorded by William R. Fish / Macaulay Library
Song
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California, June 08, 1991Recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller / Macaulay Library
Song
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New York, July 25, 2020Recorded by Jay McGowan / Macaulay Library
Dawn song
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May 24, 1983Recorded by Eugene Morton / Macaulay Library
Calls
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Maryland, July 06, 1997Recorded by Wil Hershberger / Macaulay Library
Calls
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California, April 19, 1956Recorded by William R. Fish / Macaulay Library
Calls
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New York, July 28, 2019Recorded by Jay McGowan / Macaulay Library
Calls
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Arkansas, April 01, 2006Recorded by Nathan Pieplow / Macaulay Library
Calls
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New York, June 23, 2019Recorded by Brad Walker / Macaulay Library

Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.
Listen to more sounds of this species from the ML archive.

Songs

Purple Martins sing with boisterous, throaty chirps and creaky rattles. During courtship, males make a croak song that can be 4 seconds long; he only does this when a female is nearby, often before dawn and from inside the nest cavity. Females make a chortle song. The loudest song is the dawn song, which males sing before daylight, possibly to attract other martins to the colonial nest site.

Calls

The building blocks of their songs are also used as calls, in a variety of situations. In addition, martins make a hee-hee call while fighting over territories and zwrack and zweet calls during stressful interaction with other species. Females use a choo call for leading fledglings.