The Brazza’s martin is a passerine bird in the swallow family, Hirundinidae. It has grey-brown upperparts, heavily black-streaked white underparts, and a brownish tint to the breast plumage. The song consists of a series of short notes of increasing frequency, followed by a complex buzz that is sometimes completed by a number of clicks.
About Brazza’s martin in brief
The Brazza’s martin is a passerine bird in the swallow family, Hirundinidae. It is 12 cm long with grey-brown upperparts, heavily black-streaked white underparts, and a brownish tint to the breast plumage. The sexes are similar, but juvenile birds have more diffuse breast streaking and reddish-brown edges to the feathers of the back and wings. The song consists of a series of short notes of increasing frequency, followed by a complex buzz that is sometimes completed by a number of clicks. Nesting in burrows in river banks, it lays a clutch of three white eggs. This bird feeds on flying insects, including termites, and may hunt over rivers or open savanna. Although this little-known bird had been classified as Data Deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it actually appears to be common and widespread. It has been listed as a species of Least Concern since 2008.
The species name commemorates Italian-born French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, later to become governor-general of the French Congo, who collected the type specimen. The nearest relative of the Phedina martins is the banded martin, Riparia cincta, which appears not to be closely related to the other members of its current genus. The current Association of European Rarities Committees -recommended practice is to move the banding martin to its own genus as Neophedina cinct a, rather than to merge it into Phedinopsis. There are no subspecies in this species of bird, but the bird has no sub-species in any of the other genera. The only other member of the genus is the Mascarene martin P. borbonica, although in the past it has sometimes been suggested that Brazza’s martin should be moved to its. own genus due to the significant differences in vocalisations and nest type.
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This page is based on the article Brazza’s martin published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
