Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2026! This year’s theme is “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter”. Have fun learning about a new migratory bird every day. We have coloring pages, interesting facts, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Migratory Bird of the Day: Purple Martin
Attention, Caribbean birdwatchers! Each fall, our skies welcome an elegant, streamlined traveler: the Purple Martin. Between August and October, look up for flocks of these large, social swallows perched on wires or sweeping through the air in pursuit of insects. Their passage can be one of our region’s most striking migration spectacles!
An adult male is dark all over, with a glossy purple-blue sheen that catches the light. But identification can be tricky in the Caribbean: male Cuban Martins and Caribbean Martins can look very similar. Females and young birds offer more clues.
Female Purple Martins have a grayish breast and pale belly, often with faint streaks below. Female Cuban Martins tend to show a cleaner white belly with a sharper boundary between the dark breast and white underparts. Young Purple Martins are brownish above and pale below, often with streaking. A photo can help you study these details and compare similar species.
Purple Martins breed in North America. In the eastern United States, they nest almost entirely in houses and artificial gourds provided by people, though they also use natural cavities in other parts of their range. At the end of summer, they head south to spend the nonbreeding season in South America. Many pass through the Caribbean along the way, making our islands an important part of their long journey.
Their song is a rich, liquid, bubbling warble, and their calls can fill the air when they gather at communal roosts. Purple Martins are expert aerial insect hunters, catching flying insects on the wing. Watching a flock turn and swoop together is a wonderful reminder of how much is happening above us—even when we are not looking up.
Purple Martins depend on abundant flying insects throughout their journey and on safe places to rest during migration. Reducing pesticide use helps protect their food supply. If you find a flock resting on wires or gathering in trees, enjoy the spectacle from a distance and avoid disturbing the birds.
You can also help by recording your sightings in eBird. Note when and where you saw the martins, how many there were, and whether they were feeding, flying, or roosting. These observations help build a clearer picture of their migration through the Caribbean.
The next time you see a group of large swallows gathered on a wire, take a moment to watch. You could be witnessing a stop on a journey of thousands of kilometers. Let’s care for these incredible travelers together! Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here. Great news! If you’re in the Caribbean, thanks to BirdsCaribbean, you have free access to Birds of the World and you can find out even more in the full species account of this bird!
Thanks to Adrián Yanes Domínguez for the text and Eden Garrod for the lovely illustration!
Color in the Purple Martin
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Coloring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page as your guide, or look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your colored-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #WMBD2026Carib
Listen to the calls of the Purple Martin
One of the most common flight calls of the Purple Martin is a flight is a rich descending “cheur“.
Enjoy these photos of Purple Martins
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: The main area used by Purple Martins does not cover the whole Caribbean, which means that in some places it is a bird that is hard to see, or will not be around at all. But don’t worry, there are lots of beautiful migrant birds to look out for at this time of the year. From long-billed shorebirds flocking on the beaches, to the colorful gems of warblers flitting amongst the trees, there is so much to see!
When it comes to knowing who is who when out looking for birds, field guides and webpages with colorful illustrations, helpful maps and detailed descriptions of each bird are really useful. But these are not the only tools available to you!
Have you heard of the Merlin Bird ID app? When you see a bird, you just answer some simple questions about it, and the app helps you work out what bird you have spotted! Merlin Bird ID can also help you ID a bird from a photo you have taken or a recording of the birds song! Why not head out and look for some migratory birds and then use the Merlin Bird ID app to lend a helping hand?
We have handy instructions what to look for and how to use the app here. So grab you phone, binocular and camera and see what you can find!
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Purple Martins in the wild!