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Eurasian crag martin
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Eurasian crag martin
The Eurasian crag martin or just crag martin (Ptyonoprogne rupestris) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long with ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and a short, square tail that has distinctive white patches on most of its feathers. It breeds in the mountains of southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across the Palearctic. It can be confused with the three other species in its genus, but is larger with brighter tail spots and different plumage tone. Many European birds are resident, but some northern populations and most Asian breeders are migratory, wintering in northern Africa, the Middle East or India.
The Eurasian crag martin builds a nest adherent to the rock under a cliff overhang or increasingly onto a man-made structure. It makes a neat half-cup mud nest with an inner soft lining of feathers and dry grass. Nests are often solitary, although a few pairs may breed relatively close together at good locations. Two to five brown-blotched white eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and both parents feed the chicks. This species does not form large breeding colonies, but is gregarious outside the breeding season. It feeds on a wide variety of insects that it catches with its beak while flying near to cliff faces or over streams and alpine meadows. Adults and young may be hunted and eaten by birds of prey or corvids, and this species is a host of blood-sucking mites. With its large, expanding range and large population, there are no significant conservation concerns involving the species.
This bird is closely related to the other three crag martins which share its genus, and has sometimes been considered to be the same species as one or more of them, although it appears that there are areas where two species' ranges overlap without hybridisation occurring. All four Ptyonoprogne crag martins are quite similar in behaviour to other Old World swallows that build mud nests, and are sometimes subsumed into the larger genus Hirundo, but this approach leads to inconsistencies in classifying several other genera, particularly the house martins.
The Eurasian crag martin was formally described as Hirundo rupestris by Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1769 and was moved to the new genus Ptyonoprogne by German ornithologist Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach in 1850. Its nearest relatives are the three other members of the genus, the pale crag martin, P. obsoleta, the rock martin, P. fuligula, and the dusky crag martin, P. concolor. The genus name is derived from the Greek ptuon (πτύον), "a fan", referring to the shape of the opened tail, and Procne (Πρόκνη), a mythological girl who was turned into a swallow. The specific rupestris means "of rocks", from the Latin rupes "rock". There are no generally recognised subspecies. Two races, Central Asian P. r. centralasica and P. r. theresae in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, have been proposed, but the slight differences in size and colour show no consistent geographical pattern. Fossils of this species have been found in Late Pleistocene deposits in Bulgaria, and in central France in layers dated at 242,000 to 301,000 years ago.
The four Ptyonoprogne species are members of the swallow family, and are placed in the subfamily Hirundininae, which comprises all swallows and martins except the very distinctive river martins. DNA studies suggest that there are three major groupings within the Hirundininae, broadly correlating with the type of nest built. The groups are the "core martins" including burrowing species like the sand martin, the "nest-adopters", which are birds like the tree swallow that use natural cavities, and the "mud nest builders". The Ptyonoprogne species construct an open mud nest and therefore belong to the last group; Hirundo species also build open nests, Delichon house martins have a closed nest, and the Cecropis and Petrochelidon swallows have retort-like closed nests with an entrance tunnel.
Ptyonoprogne is closely related to the larger swallow genus Hirundo into which it is often subsumed, but a DNA analysis showed that an enlarged genus Hirundo should logically contain all the mud-builder genera, including the Delichon house martins, a practice which few authorities follow. Although the nests of the Ptyonoprogne crag martins resemble those of typical Hirundo species like the barn swallow, the research showed that if Delichon, Cecropis and Petrochelidon are split from Hirundo, Ptyonoprogne should also be treated as a separate genus.
The Eurasian crag martin is 13–15 cm (5.1–5.9 in) long, with a 32–34.5 cm (12.6–13.6 in) wingspan, and weighs an average 23 g (0.81 oz). It has ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and has a broader body, wings and tail than any other European swallow. The tail is short and square, with white patches near the tips of all but the central and outermost pairs of feathers. The underwing and undertail coverts are blackish, the eyes are brown, the small bill is mainly black, and the legs are brownish-pink. The sexes are alike, but juveniles have buff-brown tips to the plumage of the head, upperparts and wing coverts. This species can be distinguished from the sand martin by its larger size, the white patches on the tail, and its lack of a brown breast band. Where the range overlaps with that of another Ptyonoprogne species, the Eurasian crag martin is darker, browner and 15% larger than the rock martin, and larger and paler, particularly on its underparts than the dusky crag martin. The white tail spots of the Eurasian crag martin are significantly larger than those of both its relatives.
The crag martin's flight appears relatively slow for a swallow. Rapid wing beats are interspersed with flat-winged glides, and its long flexible primaries give it the agility to manoeuvre near cliff faces. The average migration flight speed has been measured at 9.9 m/s (32.5 ft/s), less than the roughly 11 m/s (36 ft/s) typical for hirundines, but the data is limited. The bird often flies high, and shows the white spots as it spreads its tail. The vocalisations include short high pli, and piieh and tshir calls resembling those of the linnet and the house martin, respectively.
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Eurasian crag martin
The Eurasian crag martin or just crag martin (Ptyonoprogne rupestris) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long with ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and a short, square tail that has distinctive white patches on most of its feathers. It breeds in the mountains of southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across the Palearctic. It can be confused with the three other species in its genus, but is larger with brighter tail spots and different plumage tone. Many European birds are resident, but some northern populations and most Asian breeders are migratory, wintering in northern Africa, the Middle East or India.
The Eurasian crag martin builds a nest adherent to the rock under a cliff overhang or increasingly onto a man-made structure. It makes a neat half-cup mud nest with an inner soft lining of feathers and dry grass. Nests are often solitary, although a few pairs may breed relatively close together at good locations. Two to five brown-blotched white eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and both parents feed the chicks. This species does not form large breeding colonies, but is gregarious outside the breeding season. It feeds on a wide variety of insects that it catches with its beak while flying near to cliff faces or over streams and alpine meadows. Adults and young may be hunted and eaten by birds of prey or corvids, and this species is a host of blood-sucking mites. With its large, expanding range and large population, there are no significant conservation concerns involving the species.
This bird is closely related to the other three crag martins which share its genus, and has sometimes been considered to be the same species as one or more of them, although it appears that there are areas where two species' ranges overlap without hybridisation occurring. All four Ptyonoprogne crag martins are quite similar in behaviour to other Old World swallows that build mud nests, and are sometimes subsumed into the larger genus Hirundo, but this approach leads to inconsistencies in classifying several other genera, particularly the house martins.
The Eurasian crag martin was formally described as Hirundo rupestris by Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1769 and was moved to the new genus Ptyonoprogne by German ornithologist Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach in 1850. Its nearest relatives are the three other members of the genus, the pale crag martin, P. obsoleta, the rock martin, P. fuligula, and the dusky crag martin, P. concolor. The genus name is derived from the Greek ptuon (πτύον), "a fan", referring to the shape of the opened tail, and Procne (Πρόκνη), a mythological girl who was turned into a swallow. The specific rupestris means "of rocks", from the Latin rupes "rock". There are no generally recognised subspecies. Two races, Central Asian P. r. centralasica and P. r. theresae in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, have been proposed, but the slight differences in size and colour show no consistent geographical pattern. Fossils of this species have been found in Late Pleistocene deposits in Bulgaria, and in central France in layers dated at 242,000 to 301,000 years ago.
The four Ptyonoprogne species are members of the swallow family, and are placed in the subfamily Hirundininae, which comprises all swallows and martins except the very distinctive river martins. DNA studies suggest that there are three major groupings within the Hirundininae, broadly correlating with the type of nest built. The groups are the "core martins" including burrowing species like the sand martin, the "nest-adopters", which are birds like the tree swallow that use natural cavities, and the "mud nest builders". The Ptyonoprogne species construct an open mud nest and therefore belong to the last group; Hirundo species also build open nests, Delichon house martins have a closed nest, and the Cecropis and Petrochelidon swallows have retort-like closed nests with an entrance tunnel.
Ptyonoprogne is closely related to the larger swallow genus Hirundo into which it is often subsumed, but a DNA analysis showed that an enlarged genus Hirundo should logically contain all the mud-builder genera, including the Delichon house martins, a practice which few authorities follow. Although the nests of the Ptyonoprogne crag martins resemble those of typical Hirundo species like the barn swallow, the research showed that if Delichon, Cecropis and Petrochelidon are split from Hirundo, Ptyonoprogne should also be treated as a separate genus.
The Eurasian crag martin is 13–15 cm (5.1–5.9 in) long, with a 32–34.5 cm (12.6–13.6 in) wingspan, and weighs an average 23 g (0.81 oz). It has ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and has a broader body, wings and tail than any other European swallow. The tail is short and square, with white patches near the tips of all but the central and outermost pairs of feathers. The underwing and undertail coverts are blackish, the eyes are brown, the small bill is mainly black, and the legs are brownish-pink. The sexes are alike, but juveniles have buff-brown tips to the plumage of the head, upperparts and wing coverts. This species can be distinguished from the sand martin by its larger size, the white patches on the tail, and its lack of a brown breast band. Where the range overlaps with that of another Ptyonoprogne species, the Eurasian crag martin is darker, browner and 15% larger than the rock martin, and larger and paler, particularly on its underparts than the dusky crag martin. The white tail spots of the Eurasian crag martin are significantly larger than those of both its relatives.
The crag martin's flight appears relatively slow for a swallow. Rapid wing beats are interspersed with flat-winged glides, and its long flexible primaries give it the agility to manoeuvre near cliff faces. The average migration flight speed has been measured at 9.9 m/s (32.5 ft/s), less than the roughly 11 m/s (36 ft/s) typical for hirundines, but the data is limited. The bird often flies high, and shows the white spots as it spreads its tail. The vocalisations include short high pli, and piieh and tshir calls resembling those of the linnet and the house martin, respectively.
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