Aron Tanti

Small swallow found in open areas, breeding on cliffs and in human habitations, including towns and cities. Breeds over most of Europe and in NW Africa. Builds nest made of mud pellets attached to the outside of a building or a bridge, occasionally also natural sea cliffs or rock face. Feeds almost entirely on flying insects that are taken by aerial-pursuit. Fully migratory, with European birds wintering south of the Sahara. European population 11,200,000-23,600,000 breeding pairs, decreasing.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		23000000-48100000,33000000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Common House Martin

Nearly all connections are N-S oriented, with some variation. UK birds move more towards SE, W. European birds more SW. Pattern suggestive of connectivity between breeding and wintering locations with NW and W European birds crossing mainly from Iberia, C., N. and E. European birds moving through Italy and Greece. NW and W. European birds have just one sub-Saharan connection each, both in Nigeria, but many more in N, C and E European birds, with wintering areas in S and C Africa. Stable isotope analyses point to wintering areas of W. European birds in West Africa (Hobson et al. 2012). Some eye-catching E-W connections, from Finland to Faroe Islands, and from Denmark to Russia.

Recoveries by Condition for Common House Martin

Most re-encounter of house martins, 82%, are ring recoveries, and a further 7% were other alive encounters. Contrary to many other species, just 10% refers to dead birds, probably due to their aerial lifestyle during the non-breeding season. Most ring recoveries are from UK, the low countries and Eastern Germany, few scattered in other regions. Reports of dead birds equally spread throughout the area. Most shot birds in France and Italy.

Annual Movements for Common House Martin

From mid Nov to begin Feb encounters in Africa, and very few scattered around Europe. Already from end Feb number of encounters increase in Europe, but majority arrives end Apr through Iberia, Italy and Greece. Further increase begin May, Fennoscandia reached mid-May, northernmost locations mid Jun. Stable until mid Aug, sharp decline in Fennoscandia end Aug, vacated by mid Sep, when most birds concentrated in Southern half UK, W and C Europe. First half Oct hotspots in Switzerland and still Southern UK, en Oct few remain in Europe, last ones begin Nov.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common House Martin

Birds during breeding in NW Europe in Jun-Aug connect to southern half of UK in Sep, and further S to France, Italy and Algeria in Oct or during spring migration Apr-May. Birds during breeding in W Europe in Jun-Aug connect to France, Spain and Switzerland in Oct, or around Mediterranean during spring in Mar-Jun. Birds in Sep-Oct in France connect to UK, low countries, Germany and Denmark in May-Jun. Breeding birds from N and E Europe in Jun-Aug connect to locations within the regions and to C Europe in the same period, to scattered locations in C. Europe and France in Sep-Oct, and to S. Africa and Zimbabwe mainly in Jan. Just two birds from NW and W Europe connect to Nigeria in Feb-Mar. Nearly all re-encounters in N. Africa are in Apr and connect to NW, W and C Europe in Jun-Aug.

Henk van der Jeugd

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Hobson, K. A., Van Wilgenburg, S. L., Piersma, T., Wassenaar, L. I.2012 . Solving a migration riddle using isoscapes: House Martins from a Dutch village winter over West Africa. PloS one 7 article no.: e45005 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045005)

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