Martins

There are two species of Martins in Australia, the Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon ariel) and Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans). Both species are found right across Australia and in Tasmania. They are closely related to swallows and like them, chase insect prey in the air where they demonstrate their superb aerialist skills.

Fairy Martins are famous for their bottle shaped mud nests which they often build on man-made structures such as under building eves and road bridges and in concrete culverts. Where these sites are not available they will use cliff overhangs or even the trunks of trees. Tree Martins, as the name suggests, nest in tree hollows or cleaved wood or bark openings. Tree Martins often modify their nests with mud to restrict predator access. Both species nest colonially.

Catching Martins on the wing as they chase prey is challenging for photographers, so finding nests or birds gathering mud in the process of nest building – as the photos in this post show – is the easiest situation to obtain some relatively close shots, although your subjects are likely to have a bill full of wet mud.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

Fairy Martins

Bottle nests being constructed by a billabong in outback Queensland on the underside of a leaning Box tree or perhaps a Coolabah.

Fairy Martins on a cold morning with backs to the sun warming up.

Tree Martins, at the Bentley Plain Natural Features and Scenic Reserve, gathering mud and wet leaves used to modify/restrict nest hollow access.

Identifying Martins on the wing can be difficult however looking for the red heads and whiter rumps of Fairy Martins or the black/dark heads and dull rumps of Tree Martins are the best ID clues to use to separate these two closely related species in the field.