Did you recently see a mystery PURPLE bird in the United States?
If so, I’m guessing you are trying to identify the species correctly!
Well, you’re in the right place. Below, you will learn well-nigh the variegated PURPLE birds in the United States. I’ve included high-quality pictures and range maps to help you!
Fortunately, many of the purple birds listed unelevated visit bird feeders, so you have a unconfined endangerment of attracting them to your yard. If you’re incredibly fortunate, you may plane see one at my bird feeding station right now! I have a LIVE high-definition camera watching my bird feeders 24/7. 
16 PURPLE birds that live in the United States:
*Please note that purple is not a worldwide verisimilitude for birds. As you will see, many birds unelevated only have a patch of purple feathers. In addition, some of the species have iridescent feathers, which ways they ONLY towards purple when the sun is shining on them.*
#1. European Starling
- Sturnus vulgaris
Identifying Characteristics:
- A worldwide purple bird in the United States. Their plumage appears shiny in the sun, which is when you see the purple sheen.
- Breeding adults are darker woebegone and have a green-purple tint. In winter, starlings lose their glossiness, their beaks wilt darker, and they develop white spots over their bodies.
Did you know these purplish birds are an invasive species and aren’t supposed to be in the United States?
In 1890, one hundred starlings were brought over from Europe and released in New York City’s Central Park. The rest is history as starlings hands conquered the continent, withal the way out-competing many native birds. Their worthiness to transmute to human minutiae and eat scrutinizingly anything is uncanny to scrutinizingly no other species.
European Starling Range Map
When starlings visit in small numbers, they are fun to watch and have trappy plumage. But unfortunately, these warlike birds can ruin a party quickly when they visit in massive flocks, chasing yonder all the other birds while eating your expensive bird food. To alimony these blackbirds yonder from your bird feeders, you must take lattermost whoopee and implement “anti-starling” strategies.
#2. Rock Pigeon
- Columba livia
Rock Pigeons are extremely worldwide in the United States, but they are scrutinizingly exclusively found in urban areas. These birds are what everyone refers to as a “pigeon.” You have probably seen them gathering in huge flocks in municipality parks, hoping to get tossed some birdseed or leftover food.
The typical pigeon has a gray back, a blue-grey head, and two woebegone wing bars. In addition, look for a purple iridescence virtually their necks!
Rock Pigeon Range Map
Pigeons are hands attracted to bird feeders, expressly if leftover supplies is on the ground. Unfortunately, these purplish birds can wilt a nuisance if they visit your yard in upper numbers. Many people find their presence overwhelming and squint for ways to alimony them away!
Love them or hate them, Rock Pigeons have been associated with humans for a long time! Some Egyptian hieroglyphics suggest that people started domesticating them over 5,000 years ago. But, interestingly, scientists aren’t plane sure where their original range occurs!
#3. Purple Finch
- Haemorhous purpureus
Identifying Characteristics:
- Small, with a conical seed-eating bill.
- Males have a raspberry to purple head, breast, and back.
- Females have prominent streaks of white and brown below, with strong facial markings, including a whitish eyebrow and a visionless line lanugo the side of the throat.
Male Purple Finches are trappy and squint like they were dipped in raspberry juice.
Purple Finches use their big beaks and tongues to crush seeds and pericope the nut. Your weightier endangerment to vamp them to bird feeders is using black-oil sunflower seeds. Having conifer trees in your yard is moreover a unconfined way to encourage these finches to visit.
Purple Finch Range Map
Purple Finches can be challenging to identify considering they squint similar to the increasingly worldwide House Finch. I’ve made this mistake many times, yoyo that I saw a Purple Finch when it was, in fact, just flipside House Finch. To tell them apart, squint at their back. The Purple Finch’s when has red coloring, while the when of a House Finch has none.
#4. Purple Martin
- Progne subis
Identifying Characteristics:
- Broad-chested swallows with long tapered wings and a forked tail. Slightly hooked bill.
- Adult males are visionless and iridescent. They towards undecorous and purple in the sun.
- Females are duller with gray plumage on their heads and chests.
Purple Martins are incredible flyers! These swallows perform impressive well-ventilated acrobatics when chasing their favorite prey, which are flying insects. Squint for them mostly in unshut areas virtually water.
One interesting thing well-nigh Purple Martins is they successors in colonies in strained nest boxes. In fact, throughout most of eastern North America, they rely solely on strained cavities. But out west, Purple Martins still primarily use woodpecker holes for nesting. Interestingly, plane surpassing European settlers arrived, Native Americans used to hang up empty gourds for them!
Purple Martin Range Map
Unfortunately, Purple Martins squatter challenges for nesting sites from European Starlings and House Sparrows, which are both invasive to the United States. These introduced species often skiver hatchlings and eggs and take over the nesting location. Therefore, if you are considering putting up nest boxes for Purple Martins, you must be diligent in protecting them!
These bluish-purple birds are only in the United States during the tastefulness season. Then, towards the end of summer, Purple Martins gather and roost together in HUGE numbers as they prepare to migrate when to South America. The flocks are so big they show up on the weather radar! Press PLAY unelevated to a video I made that shows thousands of Purple Martins together.
#5. Brewer’s Blackbird
- Euphagus cyanocephalus
Identifying Characteristics:
- Males are completely slick woebegone with unexceptionable yellow eyes. However, you may see hints of blue, purple, and metallic untried reflecting off their plumage if they are in the sun.
- Females are plain brown with stake or brown eyes. They are visionless brown on the wings and tail. They DO NOT have streaking, which differentiates them from sexuality Red-winged Blackbirds.
Look for Brewer’s Blackbirds in the western United States in various habitats, such as marshes, forests, meadows, and grasslands. These birds moreover transmute incredibly well to the presence of humans and are worldwide in backyards, golf courses, parks, and agricultural areas.
Brewer’s Blackbird Range Map
Brewer’s Blackbirds are social birds. For example, they nest in colonies of up to 100 pairs of birds. Having that many vision together helps watch out for and defend versus predators.
After the tastefulness season, huge flocks come together to travel and search for supplies in grasslands and sublet fields. It’s worldwide to see mixed flocks that include cowbirds, starlings, grackles, and Red-winged Blackbirds.
#6. Violet-green Swallow
- Tachycineta thalassina
Identifying Characteristics:
- Sleek-looking birds with a slightly forked tail and long wings.
- Greenish when with white cheeks and white underparts.
- An iridescent purple or violet rump.
At first glance, these swallows towards dark. But once the sun hits their feathers, you can truly fathom their beauty, as their metallic untried backs and purple behinds wilt visible.
Your weightier endangerment at seeing these untried and purple birds in the United States is usually over unshut water. Violet-green Swallows will fly over lakes, ponds, or rivers in the early mornings, hunting for insects. Since they tend to flock with other species of swifts and swallows, squint for the birds with a white vitals and cheeks.
Violet-green Swallow Range Map
Violet-green Swallows spend winters in Mexico and Central America and are only in North America during the tastefulness season. If your house sits on land with unshut woodlands near a water source, it’s entirely possible to have these birds raise their young in your yard. The weightier way to vamp a nesting pair is to hang up nesting boxes 9-15 feet whilom the ground.
#7. Great-tailed Grackle
- Quiscalus mexicanus
Identifying Characteristics:
- These blackbirds are fairly large, slender, and have long legs,
- Males are iridescent and shine purple and undecorous in the sunlight. Look for their unexceptionable yellow vision and long V-shaped tail.
- Females are well-nigh half the size of males. Their upperparts are visionless brown, while below, they full-length paler brown plumage.
Great-tailed Grackles are unwary blackbirds that are often found in large flocks. It’s worldwide to see them living near people at parks, farms, landfills, or neighborhood backyards. Naturally, they live in unshut forests, marshes, and scrub.
Their range has spread over the past century considering of their fondness for agricultural and urban areas. In fact, they are one of the fastest expanding species in North America!
Great-tailed Grackle Range Map
Interestingly, it’s worldwide for “sex-biased” populations of Great-tailed Grackles to occur where sexuality birds profoundly outnumber males. This miracle happens for two reasons.
- Females have a higher survival rate in the nest since they are smaller and require less food.
- On average, females live longer than males.
#8: Black-chinned Hummingbird
- Archilochus alexandri
Identifying Characteristics:
- Males (picture above): A metallic untried soul with a white breast and greenish flanks. Their throne appears woebegone overall, but their crown is unquestionably very visionless green, and their lower throat is iridescent violet. You typically can’t see the strip of purple unless the light hits it just right.
- Females: A greenish-grey cap on their heads and a untried back. There is a white spot overdue their eyes, similar to the males. Females have a dark-spotted grey throat and a white breast.
I will never forget the first time I saw this hummingbird species. While on a camping trip in Zion National Park, I took an early morning walk when a male Black-chinned Hummingbird started feeding on the wildflowers in front of me! I still remember the vibrant purple throat shining in the early morning sun.
Black-chinned Hummingbird Range Map
Black-chinned Hummingbirds successors in the United States during the summer months. In winter, they migrate to the west coasts of Mexico. This species is one of the most unsteadfast hummingbird species and is found in various habitats. Squint for them in mountain and tall meadows, canyons with thickets, orchards, urban areas, and recently disturbed areas.
#9. Calliope Hummingbird
- Selasphorus calliope
Identifying Characteristics:
- Males: Squint for their long, magenta purple throat feathers that towards as streaks going lanugo their neck. Their head, upperparts, and flanks are metallic green.
- Females: They have small visionless spots on their white throat instead of the vibrant magenta throat feathers like the male. Their throne and when are covered in a metallic untried with a white, buffy breast.
The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the United States! It’s under four inches in length and weighs between 2 – 3 grams (0.071 to 0.106 oz), which is well-nigh the same weight as a ping-pong ball!
This hummingbird species has an incredibly long migration route, expressly considering their tiny size. The Calliope spends its winters in Mexico. But each spring, they make the long migration up the Pacific tailspin to their summer tastefulness grounds. Then, during fall migration, they return to Mexico by pursuit the Rocky Mountains instead of heading when lanugo the coast.
Calliope Hummingbird Range Map
Male Calliope Hummingbirds are known for their impressive U-shaped dives, which are used to vamp females. During the display, they will fly as upper as 100 feet in the air, swoop until they scrutinizingly hit the ground, and then rise when up to repeat the process.
#10. Little Undecorous Heron
- Egretta caerulea
Identifying Characteristics:
- Adults: Have a slate-gray soul and a purple-maroon throne and neck.
- Juveniles: During their first year, these herons are completely white!
- Look for a two-toned bill, regardless of the bird’s age, which is gray with a woebegone tip.
These purple birds are found in shallow wetlands in the United States. They are patient hunters and will stay motionless for long periods, waiting for prey to pass by them. While waiting, Little Undecorous Herons alimony their daggerlike snout pointed downwards to be prepared for when a fish, amphibian, insect, or crustacean appears.
Little Undecorous Heron Range Map
Interestingly, juvenile Little Undecorous Herons are completely WHITE and squint entirely variegated than adults! It’s thought that these birds well-timed this white plumage so they can be tolerated by Snowy Egrets, which reservation increasingly fish. Hanging out with large flocks of white herons moreover helps stave predators.
#11. Band-tailed Pigeon
- Patagioenas fasciata
Identifying Characteristics:
- A large dove with grayish wings and back. Underparts are purple-gray.
- Look for a white bar on the when of their neck, which sits whilom a patch of greenish iridescent feathers. This full-length should help you distinguish this dove from a Rock Pigeon.
If you see one Band-tailed Pigeon, you should expect to see many more! This is considering these doves spend most of their time traveling in large groups, which can include hundreds of birds.
Naturally, squint for these purple doves in the United States in mature coniferous or mixed forests. But they have well-timed well to people and can be found in wooded suburban areas visiting yard bird feeders. In wing to seeds, these doves moreover eat a lot of berries and fruit!
Band-tailed Pigeon Range Map
Band-tailed Pigeons can be nonflexible to see since they spend much of their time at the tops of large trees. You may have increasingly luck listening for them while walking through the woods.
#12. Boat-tailed Grackle
- Quiscalus major
Identifying Characteristics:
- As the name suggests, adults have a long, V-shaped tail resembling a boat’s keel.
- Males are slick woebegone and have a purple or undecorous shine in the sun.
- Females squint completely different, as they are smaller with a stake brown breast and visionless brown upperparts.
When they are in the vicinity, it’s easy to identify and see these loud purplish blackbirds in the United States! Naturally, squint for them in coastal salt marshes. But the easiest place to see them is virtually people, as Boat-tailed Grackles are not shy!
They readily take wholesomeness of humans for supplies and protection from predators. For example, when our family visits Disney World, I see them in large numbers, hanging out virtually rented supplies areas looking to scavenge leftover popcorn, pretzels, and french fries.
Boat-tailed Grackle Range Map
Boat-tailed Grackles have a unique mating system tabbed “harem defense polygamy,” similar to how deer and elk breed. Female birds cluster their nests tropical together and then let males compete (through displays and fighting) to see who gets to mate with the unshortened colony.
#13. Purple Gallinule
- Porphyrio martinica
Identifying Characteristics:
- Their chest, neck, and soul are covered in trappy purple plumage.
- The feathers on their when are iridescent. In the right light, they shine bronze, green, and blue.
- Long yellow legs. Red and yellow bill.
Look for these purple birds in the United States in dumbo freshwater wetlands.
Purple Gallinules are perfectly well-timed to their environments. For example, their long toes help distribute their weight increasingly evenly as they walk, which is handy since these water birds wontedly walk on top of floating vegetation, like water lilies. In addition, these long toes moreover indulge them to cling to plant stems.
Purple Gallinule Range Map
Interestingly, despite not having webbed feet, Purple Gallinules are unconfined swimmers and often swim virtually just like a duck. And when frightened, they can swoop underwater for long periods, staying subconscious except for their bill.
Because of their incredibly vibrant colors, Purple Gallinules are fairly easy to spot. In wing to wetlands, squint for them in rice fields.
#14. Costa’s Hummingbird
- Calypte costae
Identifying Characteristics:
- Males: Their large, iridescent purple gorget makes them easy to identify, as it covers their head, flaring out withal the sides of their neck like an overgrown mustache.
- Females: Females have a white throat, underparts, and a untried when and head.
Costa’s Hummingbirds have a limited range in the United States. They are found in various habitats, including desert scrub, chaparral, sage scrub, and plane in deciduous forests in their Mexico wintering grounds.
Males have a spirited mating exhibit used to vamp females. They typically perform a series of dives and loops in front of the sexuality in hopes of impressing her, and they plane position themselves at the correct wile to the sun to show their violet plumage!
Costa’s Hummingbird Range Map
Fun Facts:
- Researchers have found that Costa’s Hummingbirds need to visit up to 1,800 flowers daily to obtain unbearable energy to sustain themselves.
- Costa’s Hummingbirds are shyer than other larger species of hummingbirds. To vamp them to your yard, try offering multiple feeders to requite them a place to feed yonder from the increasingly warlike hummingbirds.
#15. Varied Bunting
- Passerina versicolor
Identifying Characteristics:
- Males are a mixture of purple, blue, and red.
- Females are tan and very plain looking.
- Their beaks are thick and curved.
At first glance, Varied Buntings towards blackish, expressly in shaded areas. But once the sun hits their feathers, these birds transform into a trappy mixture of purple, blue, and red. Look for them just wideness the Mexican verge in the southeast United States in dense, thorny forests or overgrown scrubby areas near streams.
Interestingly, females lay eggs that are either untried OR blue. It’s incredibly rare for songbirds to lay eggs that are two variegated colors.
Varied Bunting Range Map
Unfortunately, Varied Buntings used to be common, but their population has declined over the years. First, the loss of suitable habitat due to agriculture, house development, and mining has decreased the areas they can inhabit. And due to their beauty, large numbers of birds are captured in Mexico each year to be sold as pets.
#16. Gray-headed Swamphen
- Porphyrio poliocephalus
Identifying Characteristics:
- A large bird with a large and thick red bill.
- Long legs that are orangish-red.
- Their plumage is a mixture of purple, blue, and green.
These purple birds are NOT NATIVE to the United States!
Naturally, Gray-headed Swamphens originate from southern Asia. But in 1992, without Hurricane Andrew, some of them escaped from captivity and began breeding. Unfortunately, these invasive birds are large and warlike competitors. They hands outcompete many native rail species, such as the Worldwide Gallinule.
Being water birds, the weightier places to find them are in wetlands. But they transmute well to human-modified environments and are worldwide to see on golf courses, ditches, stormwater treatment plants, and neighborhood ponds.
Gray-headed Swamphens Range Map
The state of Florida plane tried to reduce the number of Gray-headed Swamphens in the environment from 2006 to 2008. Thousands of them were removed, but it had little impact, as these purple birds have unfurled to expand their population northward.
Which of these PURPLE birds have you seen surpassing in the United States?
Leave a COMMENT below. Make sure you tell us WHERE you saw the bird.
The post 16 Types of PURPLE Birds Found in the United States! appeared first on Bird Watching HQ.
