Purple Martin

One of many cavity nesters that have had their dwellings severely reduced by the removal of older trees and competition with introduced species such as English sparrows and European Starlings.  Luckily, they take well to man-made dwellings.  In the west, they don't seem to care for the apartment houses they favor in the east, but they do like to form breeding colonies.  One of the solutions that seems to work well is the use of arrays of gourds.  The originals were real gourds, but now most of them are plastic as are the one's my wife purchased.  This female was coming in with food for her chicks.  Interestingly, this was not the porch for her perch.  She actually lives in the one on the right and just paused here to fool me.

7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 562 mm, handheld, f/7.1, 1/2000, iso 640, manual exposure.  Processed in LR5 & CS6.  Cropped to 11.4 MP before resizing for the web.  Taken at 8:06 PM on July 2nd.

Please view the larger image for more impact.

Comments and criticisms are appreciated.

Thanks,