The fairy martin (''Petrochelidon ariel'') is a member of the

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

family of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s which breeds in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is migratory wintering through most of Australia, with some birds reaching

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is increasingly a wanderer to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, where it may have bred. This species is frequently placed in the genus ''Hirundo'' as ''Hirundo ariel''. It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. This is a bird of open country near water, and is usually seen near its nest sites in cliffs, culverts or bridges.

Description

The fairy martin is dumpy and square tailed. It averages long and weighs . The adult has an iridescent blue back, brown wings and tail, a

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a dia ...

crown and nape, and a whitish rump. The underparts are dull white. The sexes are similar, but young birds are duller and browner, with a paler forehead and pale fringes to the back and wing feathers. This species can be distinguished from other Australian swallows by its pale rump. The most similar species, the

tree martin The tree martin (''Petrochelidon nigricans'') is a member of the swallow family of passerine birds. It breeds in Australia, mostly south of latitude 20°S and on Timor island. It is migratory, wintering through most of Australia, New Guinea, In ...

, has a shallowly forked tail and blue-black head and nape. The call of this vocal swallow is a ''chrrrr'' and the song is a high-pitched twitter. The vocalizations are higher pitched than those of the tree martin.

Behaviour

Fairy martins breed from August through to January in colonies usually of a few tens of nests, but the largest known site had 700 nests. Nests are constructed in natural holes in dead trees, riverbanks, cliff faces or rock crevices, but increasingly in artificial sites on bridges, in culverts and pipes, and on buildings. The nest is a retort or bottle shaped structure, made from up to 1,000 mud pellets and lined with dried grasses and feathers. The bowl is about in diameter, and the entrance tunnel is long. The nests in a colony are clustered together. Both sexes build the nest and share incubation and care of the young. The clutch is usually four, sometimes five, reddish-brown speckled white eggs, and this species is often double or triple brooded. The fairy martin feeds high in the air on flying insects, usually in large flocks. Fairy martins have a slow fluttering flight and feed higher than welcome swallows. They will also feed on insect swarms low over water, and have been recorded feeding on injured

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s on a newly cut lawn. This species is highly gregarious and forms large flocks, often with tree martins.

Ecology

When the mud nest is vacated after breeding, it may become occupied by several species of microbats. These opportunists include the wattle bats of genus ''Chalinolobus'' (''

Chalinolobus morio The chocolate wattled bat, species ''Chalinolobus morio'', is a bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It is found only in Australia, including the island Tasmania, and widespread in southern regions. It is known to reside from sea level to at leas ...

'', '' C. dwyeri'' and '' C. gouldii''), and the small long-eared bat ''

Nyctophilus geoffroyi ''Nyctophilus geoffroyi'' is a vespertilionid bat, a flying nocturnal mammal found in Australia, The species is relatively common. They have been referred to as the lesser long-eared bat. Taxonomy It is the type species of genus ''Nyctophilus''. ...

''.

References

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Birds in backyards
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2225257 Petrochelidon Birds of Australia Birds described in 1843 Articles containing video clips