The male purple martin is a glossy blue-black bird with a forked tail. The female is a dull gray-black. Martins eat harmful flying insects.
Purple martins winter in Brazil and breed in North America and Canada. They now almost always live in man-made "apartment" houses. They are very social birds, living in colonies. The same martin colony may occupy the same apartment house for years. The female lays four or five white eggs.
