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Common House Martin

Common House Martin

Delichon urbicum

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The Common House Martin is a small migratory swallow that breeds across Europe, North Africa and west-central Asia and winters in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of southwestern Asia. It is recognised by its steel-blue upperparts, striking white rump and pure white underparts. Comfortable around people, it often nests in colonies under the eaves of buildings, where its soft twittering is a familiar summer sound.

Did you know?

  • Both its scientific and common names reflect its habit of nesting on buildings, often under the eaves.
  • A nest is built from hundreds of mud pellets, and the same nest is often reused and repaired year after year.

Voice

Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

Glossy blue-black above and clean white below; the obvious white rump is the best field mark. The tail is short and shallowly forked, and the legs are feathered. Told from Barn Swallow by its white rump and shorter, less deeply forked tail (Barn Swallow has long tail streamers and a red throat); unlike Sand Martin it has no brown breast band.

Family

Hirundinidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

black, white, blue

About the habitat

Open country with low vegetation – pastures, meadows and farmland, often near water – and towns and villages with buildings offering sheltered ledges for nests. Also occurs in mountains, nesting on cliffs.

Diet

Small flying insects caught in continuous flight – flies, aphids, mosquitoes and other aerial plankton.

Behaviour

Agile and fast-flying, it spends most of its time on the wing, often high over settlements or water. It builds closed mud-cup nests in colonies under eaves, on buildings or on cliffs, and chatters softly around the colony. A long-distance migrant that travels by day on a broad front; in winter it tends to range more widely and fly higher than many swallows.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mehlschwalbe Delichon urbicum.jpg

Sound: Unknown, CC BY 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delichon_urbicum_contact_call.ogg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC730814, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/730814

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_house_martin

See also