LOCKRIDGE — In a sure sign that spring is here — Sunday is the first official day — the first purple martins of the year have been spotted in Iowa. Tim Millard, a purple martin enthusiast about 10 ...

Wonder why your neighbor is hanging gourds up? Or why there appears to be an undulating donut on the weather radar? The answer to both is the purple martin. The largest swallow in North America, male ...

ERIE, Pennsylvania — If you’re looking for a sign of spring, forget about the robin ... the purple martin has been sighted in Ohio. That’s according to the Erie-based Purple Martin Conservation ...

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 ...

People have long sought to attract purple martins, which are known for their aerial acrobatics, tolerance of humans and pleasant songs. Native Americans hung hollow gourds in trees or on poles to ...

Thousands of purple martins, migratory birds roosting at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center the past two years, will have to face the music this season. Their beloved trees outside the Symphony ...

The birds take off at dusk from the Chinese elms around Symphony Place and circle overhead, chirping happily back and forth. They fill the sky, as tourists and bird watchers stare. "You see hundreds ...

In 1990, wildlife biologist Jim Ray was attending South Dakota State University to complete his master’s degree when he saw the bird that would shape the rest of his life. Ray was visiting a college ...