Purple martins are starving to death in Delaware

Dozens of adult purple martins (Progne subis) in the Mid-Atlantic starved to death this spring. Particularly hard hit was an established martin colony at Longwood Gardens, where an estimated 30 adults died. In Delaware, nesting has been delayed by as much as 2 1/2 weeks. Because the birds depend on live insects, which they capture in flight, there was little that could be done to save them. The birds each spring make a 5,000-mile migration north from the Amazon rain forest up the East Coast, said Joe Siegrist, research and outreach director for the Purple Martin Conservation Association in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Source: Delaware Online, June 14, 2016
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2016/06/14/purple-martins-suff…