Wonder why your neighbor is hanging gourds up? Or why there appears to be an undulating donut on the weather radar? The answer to both is the purple martin. The largest swallow in North America, male ...

Every year, bird enthusiasts hang groups of plastic gourds for purple martins to nest in Erica Royer Look up during the summer in eastern or southeastern North America, and you may spot a purple ...

Inside an artificial gourd hanging from an aluminum rack, a female purple martin sits on her eggs while her mate perches in the doorway to their human-made home in Erie. Meanwhile, 35 people watch.

In early February, Andrew and Carol Stamm scan the skies for the first signs that their purple martin colony will return to the nesting structures in their Harahan backyard. And each year like ...