Is that you, (house) Martin?

There are some birds trying to nest in my old barn, I suspected they were martins of some sort, but I can’t accurately ID them. I managed to get a photo last night and would describe them as having the markings of  a sand martin, but the colourings of a house martin. i.e. a band across the chest but the coloured plumage is a dark bluish colour, not brown.

Any ideas?

Any ideas?

I managed to get a photo last night

Show us!

Picture will help, but the way the light reflects can change the way you perceive colour. Odd to see a sand Martin trying to nest in a barn though

dark bluish sounds more like a swallow.  And swallows tend to prefer shelves in barns whereas house martins are the classic mud balls under eaves.

Usually you would expect to find swallows nesting in open barns or suchlike. They have a forked tail feathers which are long and thin. Martins and swifts also have forked tail feathers but they’re much shorter.

I think I’ve answered my own question inadvertently… They’re swallows, but their chins looked white on my phone, on the PC they look darker, think it must be the low light compensation. Doh.

Actually, they dont look like swallows. 😅 They should have a dark head and a brown fact for a swallow.

The dark band around the neck with a white face are sand martin features….. but that runs contrary to the fact they are in your barn when sand martins nest in cliff or large banks. Strange.

Defo swallows, those

Aye, they’re swallows

Update – I don’t think they are swallows; they’re too small, their faces aren’t brown – they’re sandy at the darkest, and their tails are fan shaped, not forked.

Ornithologists convene.

Fan shaped tails = martins. Swallows (no white on the under body) and swifts (white on the under body) have long and longer tails respectively. I may have spent too long watching our house martins. Enjoy them, they are great guests but aren’t particularly well toilet trained.

The photo you posted shows 2 swallows. The light on the left one makes it look like it has a white throat but you can clearly see the red throat on the one on the right. That’s only seen on Swallows. And as someone else stated, Swallows are much more likely to be in open barns, etc whilst House Martins nest in mud cup nests under eaves. 

 

House martins generally prefer caravans or are often found sitting on a fence

Merlin is an app the GF uses to identify live bird song.

Works incredibly well. You can also upload photos of birds, but obviously that’s not as easy as recording their song.

Currently in Tuscany and the little town we’re in is full of swifts.

Only found out yesterday that swifts are not related to swallows nor house martins, but are evolutionary convergent due to their similar lifestyle. That was a deep Wikipedia hole I feel into.

Honestly, if you’re interested in birds give the Merlin app a try…..!

kormoranFree Member
House martins generally prefer caravans or are often found sitting on a fence

Chapeau, sir.

‘interested in birds give the Merlin app a try’

I’ve got BirdNET on my phone, works pretty well

Yeah, she has the BirdNet app, too. They’re pretty similar, but the Merlin one works off line and gives you live bird song recognition.

Both impressive.

Merlin user here.  Using it I have tracked down black cap, whitethroat and mistle thrush in my garden