All species › Passerines › Swallows and martins › Mascarene Martin
Mascarene Martin | Phedina borbonica
Maskarenenzwaluw | Golondrina de las Mascareñas
The Mascarene Martin is a stocky, heavily streaked martin of Madagascar and the Mascarenes. Malagasy birds migrate to the African mainland outside the breeding season, where within the region they are a rare and irregular winter visitor.
Voice
Fairly silent outside the breeding season. It calls a soft chip or cheep; the song is a simple, soft twittering.
Recording: Ken Behrens — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–15 cm; sturdily built, with broad wings and a short, square to slightly notched tail. Upperparts grey-brown, head slightly darker. Throat, breast and flanks off-white with heavy dark brown streaks; belly and undertail coverts whiter and barely streaked. Underwing dark grey-brown. The sexes are alike; juveniles have pale fringes to the upperparts. Flight is slow and heavy, with much gliding, and recalls a small swift more than a martin.
Confusion species
The Brown-Throated Martin Riparia paludicola is smaller, with a plain brown, unstreaked throat and breast and a notched tail. The Sand Martin Riparia riparia has a white throat and a sharp brown breast band. The Banded Martin Neophedina cincta is larger, with a brown breast band, a small white eyebrow and white underwing coverts. The Large Rock Martin Ptyonoprogne fuligula is unstreaked, with white spots in the tail. Brazza's Martin Phedinopsis brazzae is also streaked but smaller, and occurs only in northern Angola.
Habitat
In its wintering range over clearings in (coastal) miombo and woodland, over rivers, riverine forest and floodplains, often with other swallows.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region an irregular winter visitor, almost only from June to August: in 1968 in large numbers in central Mozambique, earlier (1944) in hundreds in Malawi, and since 2002 in small numbers at Crooke's Corner (Pafuri) in the north of Kruger National Park. The subspecies madagascariensis breeds on Madagascar and winters on the east coast of Africa north to Kenya and on Pemba; the nominate form is resident on Réunion and Mauritius.
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the winter months, check swallow flocks over the Limpopo and Luvuvhu at Crooke's Corner and Pafuri in the north of Kruger National Park. Look for a stocky brown martin with heavily streaked underparts and a slow, gliding flight.
Conservation status
Not threatened. On the mainland scarce and irregular; numbers in the region depend on migration from Madagascar.
Scientific name
Phedina borbonica | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Hirundo borbonica; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phedina was introduced in 1857 by Bonaparte. Phedina is formed from the Greek phaios, 'brown', and the Italian rondine, 'swallow' — for the brown plumage. borbonica refers to Île Bourbon, the old French name for Réunion. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mascarenes (Île Bourbon; Réunion or Mauritius).