Brown-chested martin

{{Short description|Species of bird}}

{{Speciesbox

| name = Brown-chested martin

| image = Progne tapera -Rio Grande do Sul-8a.jpg

| image_caption = In Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2020 |title=Progne tapera |volume=2020 |page=e.T22712092A137688210 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22712092A137688210.en |access-date=11 November 2021}}

| genus = Progne

| species = tapera

| authority = (Linnaeus, 1766)

| synonyms = Hirundo tapera {{small|Linnaeus, 1766}}

| range_map = Progne tapera map.svg

}}

The brown-chested martin (Progne tapera) is a species of passerine bird in the swallow family.

It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, the United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and is a vagrant to Chile and the Falkland Islands. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, rivers, and heavily degraded former forest.

It usually swoops at low heights, showing white on the sides of its tail, with wings bowed. It may dig burrows into banks to nest (or occasionally in snags) or sometimes use old hornero nests.Robert S. Ridgely and Guy Tudor, Field guide to the songbirds of South America: the passerines, 1st ed. University of Texas Press, 2009.

Diet

It eats insects, especially termites and winged ants.{{Cite journal |last1=Oniki-Willis |first1=Yoshika |last2=Willis |first2=Edwin O. |last3=Machado |first3=Vera Ligia Letizio |last4=Lopes |first4=Leonardo Esteves |date=2022-03-30 |title=Diet of two coexisting martins (Passeriformes: Hirundinidae) from southeastern Brazil |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43388-022-00092-3 |journal=Ornithology Research |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=130–134 |doi=10.1007/s43388-022-00092-3 |bibcode=2022OrniR..30..130O |s2cid=258704402 |issn=2662-673X|url-access=subscription |hdl=11449/234339 |hdl-access=free }}

Social Behavior

It often congregates in groups of up to tens of thousands around dusk.

References