Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba. Purple martins have returned to North America – including the Canadian prairies – for their breeding season, a celebratory sight for bird lovers in the province. Dave Barnes has admired the bird from a young age and is now one of the many birdwatchers who eagerly await their return every spring.
For Barnes, his favourite aspect about purple martins is the connection they have with humans. "Humans have established a long-term relationship with purple martins," said Barnes. He said the beautiful songbirds have become reliant on humans to provide shelter – dating back hundreds of years.
"It's thought that Indigenous ancestors put up these poles with gourds, hollowed out gourds on them to attract the martins to nest." Barnes notes this wasn't just a one-way relationship. The nests would be set up around crops and since martins are insectivores, they would keep bugs away.
They are also very defensive of their nests according to Barnes, so they would keep other birds from settling in and eating the growing plants. "There's not a lot of birds that can catch them and when they are mounting, you've got 50 to 100 of these (martins) dive-bombing a crow, it's time to move along. "So the martins would protect the seed in their gardens.
..They would not let crows or blackbirds come and hang around.
" That relationship has continued to blossom ove.