The Purple Martin is the largest North American swallow

Swallow

The swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...

. These aerial acrobats have speed and agility in flight, and when approaching their housing, will dive from the sky at great speeds with their wings tucked.
Purple Martins are a kind of swallow, of the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Progne. Like other members of this genus, they are larger than other swallows. The average length from bill to tail is 20 cm (7.9 in).