Tree Martins

These beautiful little birds are not nesting, they often visit their nesting sites out of season and I was lucky enough to be lakeside in the NSW Riverina district when a small flock flew in, checked the hollow and flew off again.

 

Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans)
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 800
Canon 5DsR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT

 

Catching a Tree Martin in flight made me super happy, and pretty surprised. I love seeing the beautiful detail of its rump and fanned tail feathers.

Tree Martins are about 12cm and weigh about 15g. They’re easily confused with Welcome Swallows and Fairy Martins but have several distinct features. Adult Tree Martins have a russet-brown patch on their foreheads, topped by a blue-black iridescent head and upper back. Their underparts are paler and streaky. In flight their rump patch appears off-white while Fairy Martins have a brighter white rump and Welcome Swallows have no contrasting rump patch. Their tails are also different, fairies’ tails are shorter while Welcome Swallows have distinctly forked tails

 

Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans)
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800
Canon 5DsR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT

 

Tree Martins are named because of their preference to nest in tree hollows. Sometimes the entrances are too big for comfort so the birds modify the opening using mud. They often live around lakes and wetlands so can easily collect mud from the water’s edge.

The bird on the left in the above image is a youngster that hasn’t yet developed the bolder colours of the adult birds.

The knobbly, rounded burl can be seen in both images above. I liked the look of it from the side so moved into the shallow water at the edge of the lake to take the photograph above.

 

Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans)
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 800
Canon 5DsR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT

 

The image above clearly shows the buff edges of Tree Martin’s dark feathers. They mainly feed by catching insects on the wing but will also forage on the ground, from branches and other surfaces.

I had to prepare lirralirra early this week as I’m due to make a nature photography presentation at the Australian Photographic Society’s annual conference – if you’re there too please come and say hi.

Happy birding

Kim

 

~ If interested please like my new Facebook page: Kim Wormald – lirralirra and visit Ethical Bird Photography

~ For a weekly email saying lirralirra has been updated please subscribe above

 

16 comments to Tree Martins

Leave a Comment

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>