Hello Tweets,

We have just updated our website with photos of the Purple Martins at the Tokeland Marina. The only bird we safely felt confident with in identification was the adult male,but the other birds we were not sure. We kindly ask if any Purple Martin expert could identify the other birds in our photos to age and sex since we are not that educated with them. We believe most of the birds are immature birds,but want to have an idea to what sex and exact age,if possible.

It was enjoyable getting the photos we got and see the interaction between this birds too! We can only hope they will decide to nest in the 2 nest boxes we placed for them and we believe this would most likely take place next year since it is late July already. It is also possible to have late nesters too. The birds really seemed interested and curious about the new nest boxes,which is probably normal. We found a Purple Martin website online that indicated that Purple Martins have four distinct age/sex classes noted during the breeding season,but it takes only 2 years to reach adult plumage. Maybe it is no as difficult than it seems,but we'd enjoy knowing the age/sex of the bird's we photographed away from the adult male. Our photos of the Purple Martins at the Tokeland Marina can be accessed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/purple_martin_photos/


Sincerely,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com