House martins nesting

[spiralsheep]

Common house martins, Delichon ubicum, are migratory passerine birds who breed and nest in Europe then overwinter in Africa and tropical Asia. I capped a flock of them working in pairs to collect beak-fulls of mud, from ruts in a church car park, to daub the nests they build hanging under the eaves of houses.





There are, of course, clearer images than mine available.

Comments

Yay, martins!

[redsixwing]

Mud-daubing birds are some of my favorites.

Re: Yay, martins!

[spiralsheep]

Any bird managing to build a nest that hangs down from something else gets my respect. Nests are difficult enough when there's a readymade framework propping them up.

I've now realised I don't know how sand martins burrow into sandy banks without them collapsing. I should google.

Re: Yay, martins!

[redsixwing]

Huh! The local equivalent to sand martins builds a mud-nest under eaves. I didn't realize there were burrowing ones. Cool!

Re: Yay, martins!

[spiralsheep]

I suppose it's a smart move for small birds like martins, who usually rely on speed in flight to evade predators, to construct nests hanging from eaves or burrowed into sandy banks that are difficult for predators to access.

[nanila]

So pretty! I love their perky carriage.

[spiralsheep]

Considering they don't spend much of their lives on the ground they seem to cope with landing on, standing on, and taking off from mud surprisingly well, especially taking off with beaks full of heavy mud.

[lark_ascends]

Very cool!

[spiralsheep]

Thank you!