Communication

Pur­ple mar­tins com­mu­ni­cate vo­cally and vi­su­ally. Pur­ple mar­tins have eleven iden­ti­fied vo­cal­iza­tions that they use for dif­fer­ent oc­ca­sions like mat­ing, warn­ing, and teach­ing the young dur­ing fledg­ing. Male pur­ple mar­tins use singing and vi­sual dis­plays to at­tract po­ten­tial fe­male mates. Ju­ve­nile pur­ple mar­tins re­sort to ‘choo-choo’ calls to at­tract their par­ents’ at­ten­tion if pro­tec­tion is needed. Par­ents use ju­ve­nile ‘choo-choo’ calls to as­sem­ble their broods and re­turn them safely to the nest. Fe­male pur­ple mar­tins use the ‘choo’ call to lead their young to and from group­ings areas dur­ing the fledg­ing pe­riod. Pur­ple mar­tins only re­sort to ‘zwarck’ calls when they need to send a high in­ten­sity alarm, and it is often ac­com­pa­nied by the birds div­ing straight down to­wards the in­vader. Male pur­ple mar­tins use ‘hee-hee’ vo­cal­iza­tions to fight off in­trud­ers. ‘Zweet’ calls are used to show in­traspe­cific ex­cite­ment, as well as send an alarm to warn other pur­ple mar­tins of a po­ten­tial threat and to en­cour­age them to fly away. Pur­ple mar­tins use ‘cher’ calls to com­mu­ni­cate daily and will use ‘chor­tle’ calls in high ex­cite­ment sit­u­a­tions. Males at­tract fe­males by singing ‘croak songs’ as well as to warn off un­mated males from en­ter­ing their ter­ri­tory. Dur­ing courtship males make a click­ing sound by snap­ping their lower and upper mandibles to­gether. The last vo­cal­iza­tion male pur­ple mar­tins use are ‘sub­songs’ and are heard dur­ing feed­ing and pre-mi­gra­tory pe­ri­ods. ‘Sub­songs’ are used to com­mu­ni­cate with other pur­ple mar­tins while so­cial­iz­ing to­gether. Pur­ple mar­tin males that are part of a sta­ble colony often per­form a ‘dawn­song’ which in­clude a va­ri­ety of sounds early in the morn­ing. (Brown, 1978; Brown, 1984; Brown, 1997; John­ston and Hardy, 1962; Mor­ton, 1985)