As others have said, Welcome Swallows have a deeply forked tail whereas both
martins have only a slight fork and Welcome Swallows have a dark rump (compared
to dull white in Tree Martin and white in Fairy Martins).
The main ways I separate Tree & Fairy Martins are
1) Crown colour. Tree Martins have a dark crown (I would call it a dark
blue/black) while Fairy Martins have a red-brown crown. I've sometmes found
that this difference can be surprisingly difficult to pick up, particularly
when the birds are in flight.
2) Call: I'm not very good at describing calls, but Tree Martins have sort of a
twittering call whereas Fairy Martins make more of a buzzing, churring sound.
Someone else out there may be able to help out with better descriptions of the
calls. I find the calls are particularly useful when separating the two martins.
Hope that helps
Cheers
John Graff
________________________________
From:
To:
Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 10:57:00 +0800
Subject: Martin Identification
Hi everyone,
for a while now, I have been having trouble identifying between Welcome
Swallow's, Fairy and Tree Martins. Can someone please help me out?
Max.
Sydney...
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