Did you know that our immersive Butler Sound Gallery incorporates recordings from a Purple Martin Party? 🐦 Sound art pioneer Bill Fontana recorded roosting sounds of the migratory birds in Austin back in 2021, which can be heard in the current installation. Travis Audubon Society host Purple Martin Parties annually, where hundreds of people congregate to watch hundreds of thousands of Purple Martins “swirl” into their roosting site. After dining on insects during the day and prior to settling d

Purple martins are quite vocal. They are known to chirp, chortle, rattle, and croak. Their various calls are described as "throaty and rich" and can be rendered as tchew-wew, pew pew, choo, cher, zweet and zwrack. The males have a gurgling and guttural courtship song, a dawn song, and even a subsong used at the end of the breeding season. Tapes of purple martin song are sold to attract martins to newly established birdhouses. The purple martin (Progne subis), from the Passeriformes order, is the