House Sparrow and Purple Martin fighting

This little male House Sparrow was very aggressive and was attacking

this Purple Martin that was almost twice his size! You can see they

have their beaks locked together.

Please view larger....

what an incredible shot !!!! wow !! impressive !!

~trish~

STUNNING...............................

Great Capture

The purple martin seems to have the upper hand, but house sparrows have decimated purple martin populations, especially in or near cities.  Both nest in cavities, and the non-native house sparrow has simply overwhelmed purple martins.  Purple martins used to be (around 1900) the most common species in Seattle; now they are very hard to find, but they may be benefitting from nest boxes placed over water.  Anyhow, this is a superb shot; it captured for me the conflict between the two species.