"Male's primary courtship signal, given frequently while trying to attract mates and often directed at a mate throughout egg-laying. Always given in presence of a female, and male clearly orients toward her when singing. Croak Songs are commonly given in predawn hours while birds are still inside nest cavities. Since this song is not used at all in intrasexual interactions among males, it is likely an intersexually selected trait; females possible use song characteristics to select mates and/or extra-pair copulation partners."

(Brown, C.R. 1997. Purple Martin (Progne Subis). In The Birds of North America, No. 287 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.)

"Dawnsong is a unique set of vocalizations performed by adult male martins during the predawn hours of spring while flying high above their colony sites, or while perched nearby. It is a loud, continuous series of chirps presented in a syncopated series of about seven to nine notes repeated over and over. Each male flies his own path in slow, wide circles about 500 feet up, singing his own unique song. It is estimated that the sounds from a morning of dawnsong transmit to about 100 cubic miles of air volume."

(Hill, James R., Purple Martin Dawnsong, For Attracting Martins!, pg. 3.)

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