Possible Asian House Martins in Northern Israel - Part 2

In part 1 of this chapter we covered the initally discovery of several martins and the features that alerted us to the possibilty of Asian House Martin (Delichon dasypus) occurring in the Bet Shean Valley. In this chapter we present some images of a perched 'martin' seen in close company with a Northern House Martin (Delichon urbica). The bird in question was photographed at Tirat Zevi reservoir on 26th August 2003. It may be worth mentioning that this particular bird was not seen well in flight and the characters described are derived only from perched birds.

Click on the pictures to enlarge (+)

Image 1 - shows a typical Northern House Martin (D.u.urbica) with brownish remiges and tail, and rather white underparts with a faint buff-grey wash on the throat, flanks and undertail coverts. The prominent, broad white tipped tertial feather indicates a first-year bird with dark blue adult type feathering emerging through the brownish juvenile feathers on the crown and mantle. It's worth noting that the white of the cheek extends to the gape, with a white line above the upper mandible tapering towards the forehead, and thus clearly separating the black of the lore from the bill. The black lore does not extend to the lower mandible or along its lower edge, which apparently should be the case in Asian House Martin (D.dasypus).

Image 2 - Shows a fascinating comparison between two 'house martins' amongst Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) of the form 'transitiva'. The upper bird is suspected of being Asian House Martin (D.dasypus). The lower bird is clearly a Northern House Martin (D.u.urbica) showing the longer tail of the two with an obvious deep cleft, glossy blue-black upperparts, very white rump and throat and broad white tips to the tertials indicating a first calendar year bird.

The upper bird gives the appearance of having a different jizz, looking more compact with a shorter tail (slightly shorter the folded primaries), and the tail itself shows a less obvious fork. The upperparts are clearly darker and in this shot lack a glossy appearance. The rump has a peculiar greyish wash with the rump feathers showing dark centres. Although this is a first calendar year bird, there is no evidence of the broad, white tipped tertials as shown by the accompanying Northern House Martin (D.u.urbica).

Image 3 - Suspected Asian House Martin (D.dasypus) between two Barn Swallows (H.rustica). This preening bird shows well the extent of the grey washed rump and especially the longest uppertail coverts which are glossed blue-black and clearly darker than the faded brown tail. This creates the effect of a narrower rump patch, and combined with the dark uppertail coverts, mentioned by several authors (Turner & Rose 1989, Moores 2003) as a feature of Asian House Martin (D. dasypus).

 

Image 4 - The same preening bird again, showing dark centred feathers in the rump and a few blue glossed adult type feathers in the mantle indicating a first-calender year. However the tertials are not broadly white tipped as in the accompanying Northern House Martin (D. u.urbica) which could be potentially useful in separating first year birds of the two taxa. Note also the proportionately shorter tailed, and more compact appearance of this bird at rest.

 

Image 5 - Compare the head pattern of this bird to the bird in Image 1. The black ear coverts patch extends farther down the white cheek, and the bl

Contact info

Daphna Abell
Program Coordinator
lotan-programs@lotan.ardom.co.il
Tel: +972 8 6356935;
Toll Free: 1800 2000 75 (when in Israel)