Purple martins react to peregrine falcon sighting

Purple martins have been using Bradford Pear trees in the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, VA for an unknown number of years during their annual migration to South America for the winter. They have various predatory birds to deal with as they take off in the morning and come in to the roost at night. Fans had been hearing a change in the loud chatter of thousands of birds during the 2008 roost, and eventually it was linked to the appearance of Richmond's nesting pair of peregrine falcons. They are the only raptor that triggers this hard-to-characterize sound modulation at this roost. Occasionally the martins will become almost totally silent when the peregrines are especially threatening--this pair successfully raised 3 ravenous young this year. A peregrine can achieve breathtaking speed as it snatches prey in midair, and the martins take every precaution to reduce their losses to this formidable foe. The sound modulation is most easy to hear during the morning flight and was captured in a video taken the morning of 8/9/09. Listen carefully at the 2:11 point in the video. There is now a yearly festival in late July called Gone to the Birds that celebrates the return of the martins to the Bottom. Many thanks to videographer Adolph White for making this video available.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Purple martins
• peregrine falcon
• migration
• Shockoe Bottom
• Bradford Pear

[MsOwlwoman]

This year the Martins are giving the Peregrine alert in flight. That is a new thing.