Purple Martin Baby pictures

Purple Martin Nest Check May 13, 2001

The 5 babies were born on the 10th or 11th of May to their proud parents. The pictures below were taken on May 13th, so the babies are around 3 days old now. They are adorable! The parents are busy bringing food for them, and another martin couple now seems interested in the house too (a subadult male and female), so I opened up another door in the house today in case they want to stay and build a nest.

Note the excluder door entrance at the back of the first picture below. The compartment is 12" long with a mud dam built about half way in, and the nest is against the back wall which opens for the nest check.

The large belly on the baby to the left in the picture below is a yolk sac.
The babies are fed by their parents from the moment of hatching,
but the tiny babies still receive nutrition from the yolk sac for awhile.

Click here for more pictures of the Mom bringing home food for the babies.

For more information on Purple Martins, visit one of these great web sites:

Purple Martin Conservation Association
http://purplemartin.org/

Kent Justus's Purple Martin House site
http://www3.vantek.net/pmh