Banding Purple Martins Part II
by Elizabeth Tenhoeve, 5 Aug 2013.Quite a crowd turned out for what is becoming an annual event.
At Myrtle Rocks we have one of the northernmost colonies of Purple Martins, birds of the swallow family who nest in the boxes attached to offshore pilings. We watched the nestlings as they were removed from the nest, banded, and assessed for age, then put back into the nest.
These birds migrate huge distances, so the banding helps to keep track of what journeys the birds have made.