Volunteers check on purple martin nest box tenants

Published 1:30 am Monday, July 27, 2026

Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society volunteers recently checked poles with nest boxes for purple martins.

At low tide, the group checks the number of eggs and chicks using an endoscopic camera on a cable tethered to a smartphone app.

There are 18 nests on three steel poles, volunteer John Gussman said, and they are removed after the nesting season.

The purple martin is a perching bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae and is the largest swallow in North America.

Despite its name, its feathers are not truly purple but rather dark blackish-blue with an iridescent sheen, giving them a bright blue to navy blue or deep purple appearance.

Purple martins are migratory.

Their breeding range includes all of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, as well as the coastal Pacific Northwest, Baja California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Known for their speed, agility and rapid flapping and gliding flight patterns, the birds will dive from the sky at great speeds with their wings tucked when approaching their nest.