House martins

Today's the day ...................... to learn

Three pairs of house martins have made their nests under the eaves of Rob and Anna's house in Moniaive.

I had never really come across them before, so I had to do a bit of online research into them.  The full list is here - but just to whet your appetite, here's a few interesting facts about house martins in general:

They are one of the most widespread birds in Europe, occurring from the Mediterranean all the way north to the arctic.

Around 86% of birds nesting in Britain attempt to rear two broods - young from the first brood have often been observed helping their parents feed the next brood, an unusual occurrence in birds.

Breeding birds were lost from London in the mid 20th-century due to air pollution, but as the result of cleaner air have recolonised successfully.

Though the same pair will usually remain together for a single breeding season, it is rare for the two to pair again the following year, even if both survive.

The diet is almost exclusively flying insects, caught on the wing.  House martins typically feed at a higher altitude than swallows, so the two species do not compete with each other.

Each nest is made up of at least 1,000 beak-sized mud pellets

It takes a pair of house martins about 10 days to construct their mud-cup nest, and this depends on a suitable supply of mud nearby.

Around 12 million pairs of house martins nest in Europe, yet we still don’t know where they winter in Africa. It’s suspected that they congregate high over the rainforests of the Congo basin.

So now you know ..............................!