Eurasian Crag Martin

The Eurasian crag martin is a small swallow about 14 cm long with ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, a broader body, wings and tail than any other European swallow, and a short square tail with distinctive white patches on most feathers. It can be confused with the three other species in its genus but is larger, with brighter tail spots and a different plumage tone; it often flies high, showing the white spots as it spreads its tail. Many European birds are resident, but some northern populations and most Asian breeders are migratory, wintering in northern Africa, the Middle East or India (Wikipedia, general species account).

It makes a neat half-cup mud nest with a soft lining of feathers and dry grass under a cliff overhang, increasingly on a man-made structure. Nests are often solitary, though a few pairs may nest close together at good sites. The species does not form large breeding colonies but is gregarious outside the breeding season. Two to five eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and both parents feed the chicks. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, a summer and winter migrant of alpine and cold desert with a Moderate range of about 68,000 km², a rapid long-term decline of about 79% and a current decline of about 5.5% a year (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).