Grey-breasted martin explained

The grey-breasted martin (Progne chalybea) is a large swallow from Central and South America.

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the grey-breasted martin in the second volume of his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. He used the French name L'hirondelle de Cayenne and the Latin name Hirundo Cayanensis.^[1] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.^[2] The grey-breasted martin was subsequently described by the French polymath, the Comte de Buffon, in 1779 and by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1783. Latham used the English name "Chalybeate swallow" but neither Buffon nor Latham introduced a scientific name.^{[3] [4] [5]}

The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin included the grey-breasted martin when he revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1789. He placed it with the swallows in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo chalybea.^[6] The specific epithet chalybea is Latin meaning "steely".^[7] The grey-breasted martin is now one of nine species placed in the genus Progne that was introduced in 1826 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie.^[8]

The three subspecies and their distributions are:^[8]

• P. c. chalybea (Gmelin, 1789) – nominate, breeds from Mexico through Central America south to central Brazil, and on Trinidad
• P. c. warneri Phillips, A.R., 1986 – found in western Mexico
• P. c. macrorhamphus Brooke, 1974 – breeds further south in South America to central Argentina

The southern subspecies migrates north as far as Venezuela during the southern hemisphere's winter, and the nominate form also undertakes local movements after the breeding season.

Description

The grey-breasted martin is in length and weighs . It has a forked tail and relatively broad wings. The adult male is glossy blue-black with the grey-brown throat, breast and sides contrasting with the white lower underparts. The female is duller than the male with a paler throat; the juveniles have dull brown upperparts.^[9]

Behaviour

Breeding

The grey-breasted martin nests in cavities in banks and buildings, or old woodpecker holes. Normally, two to four eggs are laid in the lined nest, and incubated for 15–16 days, with another 22 days to fledging.

Diet

Grey-breasted martins are gregarious birds that hunt for insects in flight. Their call is a gurgly chew-chew, similar to that of the closely related Caribbean martin. The latter species is slightly larger, and has more contrasting underparts.

Further reading

• Book: Swallows & Martins: An Identification Guide and Handbook . Turner . Angela . Rose . Chris . 1989 . Houghton Mifflin . 978-0395511749 . registration .
• Book: Hilty, Steven L. . 2003 . Birds of Venezuela . Princeton University Press . 0-7136-6418-5 .
• Book: ffrench . Richard . O'Neill . John Patton . Eckelberry . Don R. . A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago . 2nd . 1991 . Ithaca, N.Y. . Comstock Publishing . 0-8014-9792-2 .

Notes and References

1. Book: Brisson, Mathurin Jacques . Mathurin Jacques Brisson . 1760 . Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés . 2 . French, Latin . 495 . Paris . Jean-Baptiste Bauche . The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
2. Allen . J.A. . Joel Asaph Allen . 1910 . Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus . Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History . 28 . 317–335 . 2246/678 .
3. Book: Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de . Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon . 1779 . Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux . 6 . Paris . De l'Imprimerie Royale . 675–676 . L'hirondelle de Cayenne . French . https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1069718q/f753.item .
4. Book: Buffon . Georges-Louis Leclerc de . Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon . Martinet . François-Nicolas . François-Nicolas Martinet . Daubenton . Edme-Louis . Edme-Louis Daubenton . Daubenton . Louis-Jean-Marie . Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton . 1765–1783 . Hirondelle de Cayenne . Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle . 6 . Paris . De L'Imprimerie Royale . Plate 545, Fig. 2 . https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35214295 .
5. Book: Latham, John . John Latham (ornithologist) . 1783 . A General Synopsis of Birds . 2, Part 2 . Printed for Leigh and Sotheby . London . 574, No. 22 .
6. Book: Gmelin, Johann Friedrich . Johann Friedrich Gmelin. 1789 . Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis . 13th . 1, Part 2 . Latin . Lipsiae [Leipzig] . Georg. Emanuel. Beer . 1026 .
7. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 98 .
8. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . January 2023 . Swallows . IOC World Bird List Version 13.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 21 May 2023 .
9. Book: Turner, Angela K. . 2004 . Family Hirundinidae (Swallows and Martins) . del Hoyo . J. . Elliott . A. . Christie . D.A. . Handbook of the Birds of the World . 9: Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails . Barcelona, Spain . Lynx Edicions . 978-84-87334-69-6 . 602–685 [656] . https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0009unse/page/656/mode/1up . registration .