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Definition of purple martin
: a large swallow (Progne subis) of North America the males of which have glossy purplish-blue plumage
Examples of purple martin in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web The purple martin young are emerging from their apartment nests.
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Calvin Finch, ExpressNews.com, "Calvin Finch: Purple martins’ majesty about to wane," 9 July 2020 Folks with houses for purple martins have reported visits by small groups of the interesting birds.
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Calvin Finch, ExpressNews.com, "Calvin Finch: Purple martins are back. How to attract them to your San Antonio yard," 27 Feb. 2020 Usually the purple martin will tolerate the intervention and the starling may leave.
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Calvin Finch, ExpressNews.com, "Calvin Finch: Purple martins are back. How to attract them to your San Antonio yard," 27 Feb. 2020 The purple martins that nested in the San Antonio area have assembled and begun their trip to South America for the winter.
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Calvin Finch, ExpressNews.com, "How to deal if your lawn’s in excessive shade," 2 Aug. 2019 People who host purple martin colonies are taking action to keep their neighbors alive.
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Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Robins, purple martins and other birds in peril from weekend snowstorm," 17 Apr. 2018 Other sightings around the Cape included a worm-eating warbler in the Mashpee River woodlands, an alder flycatcher in South Truro, and five purple martins at Wellfleet Bay sanctuary.
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BostonGlobe.com, "Bird sightings on Cape Cod," 24 June 2018 By the middle of May, there are usually more than 100 purple martins at Nikolai's colony.
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Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Robins, purple martins and other birds in peril from weekend snowstorm," 17 Apr. 2018
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'purple martin.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for purple martin
The first known use of purple martin was in 1731
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