- Purple martins are fast and skillful fliers. Aerial insectivores – they catch and eat their meals in flight.
- Purple martins group together by the tens of thousands to rest, feed, and form social bonds before flying to South America each winter.
- Introduced house sparrows and starlings compete with purple martins for nesting cavities. Today, almost all purple martins in the eastern United States nest in man-made gourds and condos.
- Prior to the arrival of European settlers on the continent, Native Americans hung gourds for purple martins to roost in.
