The purple martin (Progne subis) is a passerine bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae. It is the largest swallow in North America. Despite its name, the purple martin is not truly purple. The dark blackish-blue feathers have an iridescent sheen caused by the refraction of incident light giving them a bright blue to navy blue or deep purple appearance. In some light they may even appear green in color. Being migratory, their breeding range extends from central Alberta down through the eastern United States. Subspecies breed in Baja California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Most make a brief stopover in the Yucatán Peninsula or Cuba during pre-breeding migration to North America and during post-breeding migration before reaching their overwintering site in South America. They are known for their speed, agility, and their characteristic mix of rapid flapping and gliding flight pattern. When approaching their nesting site, they will dive from the sky at great speeds with their wings tucked, just like the peregrine falcon does when hunting smaller birds.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
⚠ sources differ — AnAge: 45 g · AmnioteDB: 51.45 g · AVONET: 53.79 g · EltonTraits: 53.79 g
Body mass (female)50.55 g
Body mass (male)51.75 g
Hand-wing index52
Kipp's distance76.6 mm
Secondary length70.7 mm
Tail length72.4 mm
Tarsus length15 mm
Wing length147 mm
Life cycle & reproduction12
Age at maturity (male)365 days
Age at sexual maturity365 days
Egg mass3.9 g
Fledging age28 days
Fledging mass52 g
Gestation15 days
Growth rate0.384 /day
Incubation15.5 days
Litter size5
Litters per year1 /year
Max. longevity166 months
Neonate mass2.8 g
Diet & foraging8
Aerial20 %
Canopy20 %
Ground20 %
Invertebrate100 %
Midhigh20 %
Trophic levelcarnivore
Trophic nicheInvertivore
Understory20 %
Habitat & environment4
HabitatForest
Migration1.0
Primary lifestyleAerial
Range size5 698 973 km²
05DNA & barcoding25 specimens
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Progne subis has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens25
BINs2
Marker genes1
eDNA detections25
Countries3
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P686 bp consensus25 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 98% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 17 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)1.1%
Haplotypes12
BINs2
Most divergent pair2.5%
N.America
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5P
animal barcode
06Genome at a glanceNCBI
The complete instruction manualProgne subis carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Genome size1 427 880 000 bp
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
BACTERIUM Carsonella ruddii0.00016 Gb
FUNGUS0.04 Gb
INSECT0.25 Gb
THIS GENOME Progne subis1.43 Gb
HUMAN3.2 Gb
WHEAT17 Gb
FERN Tmesipteris160.45 Gb
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy87% within 1 km
≤100 m 9 488≤1 km 5 163≤10 km 1 216>10 km 975
16 842 georeferenced · 2 062 511 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor2 079 353
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy29% within 1 km
≤100 m 202≤1 km 57≤10 km 397>10 km 223
879 georeferenced · 662 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence1 541
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions36 of 58 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Wuzhou, CN
211
Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record
191
Toronto, CA
157
Ann Arbor, US
103
Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record
92
US
56
Seattle, US
53
Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record
49
Delaware Museum of Nature and Sciencelocation not on record
48
München, DE
45
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
44
San Diego, US
41
Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record
37
Washington, US
33
University of California Los Angeleslocation not on record
26
Tacoma, US
24
Saint John, CA
19
Cambridge, US
19
Philadelphia, US
18
Chicago, US
17
Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record
16
New Haven, US
15
St. Paul, US
15
Denver, US
14
Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record
14
Zacatecas, MX
14
Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record
12
Chongqing Museumlocation not on record
9
Tapachula, MX
9
University of Nebraska State Museumlocation not on record
8
INMAlocation not on record
8
Albany, US
7
UNICAMPlocation not on record
7
Tall Timbers Research Stationlocation not on record
6
Los Angeles, US
6
Iowa City, US
6
ASNHClocation not on record
6
South Kensington, GB
6
Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record
5
Ithaca, US
5
Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record
5
Berkeley, US
4
San Francisco de Campeche, MX
4
Geneva, CH
4
Moore Laboratory of Zoology, Occidental Collegelocation not on record
4
CASlocation not on record
3
Ensenada, MX
3
EL PASO, US
3
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, MX
3
Chicago, US
2
Puerto Ayora, EC
2
Mexico City, MX
2
Bourges, FR
1
Mexico City, MX
1
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (IAvH)location not on record
1
UTCBlocation not on record
1
Zografou, GR
1
Auckland, NZ
1
58 institutions · 1 516 of 1 541 vouchered records shown · 25 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA25 detections
Where the DNA of Progne subis was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found25
Studies independent surveys1
Countries3
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 25 detections have coordinates
Open the map3 countries0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median11.1 °C 8.40–22.0
Seasonal swing summer↔winter14.5 °C
Max temp (day)13.9 °C 11.1–31.1
Min temp (night)9.10 °C 4.90–14.6
Precipitation74.8 mm/mo 3.90–151
Air humidity60.6 % 50.6–62.9
Moisture balance-7.00 mm/mo -184–123
Vapour deficit559 Pa 463–1,306
Wind speed2.90 m/s 2.00–4.10
Cloud cover41.5 % 26.0–45.8
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 19 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation13 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 080 933 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI25 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics25 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗