From Opus

Photo by Seyed Babak Musavi. Photo taken: Bandarabbas city, Iran

Ptyonoprogne fuligula

Hirundo fuligula

[edit] Identification

12-15cm. Earth-brown plumage, paler on the throat, breast and underwing coverts.

[edit] Distribution

Africa and Arabia.

[edit] Taxonomy

Previously in genus Hirundo.

Thirteen subspecies are recognized^[1]:

• P. f. presaharica

• S Morocco, Algeria (except s) and n Mauritania

• P. f. spatzi

• S Algeria, sw Libya and n Chad

• P. f. buchanani

• S-c Sahara (Aïr Massif of n Niger)

• P. f. obsoleta

• Egypt to Arabia and Iran

• P. f. perpallida

• S Iraq and ne Saudi Arabia

• P. f. pallida

• E Iran, s Afghanistan and Pakistan

• P. f. arabica

• NE Chad, n Sudan, sw Arabia, Eritrea, n Somalia and Socotra I.

• P. f. pusilla

• S Mali to Eritrea and Ethiopia

• P. f. bansoensis

• Sierra Leone to Nigeria and Cameroon

• P. f. fusciventris

• S Chad, CAR, w and s Sudan, sw Ethiopia to n Mozambique

• P. f. anderssoni

• N and sw Angola and n and c Namibia

• P. f. fuligula

• S Namibia, Botswana and w South Africa

• P. f. pretoriae

• SW Zimbabwe and s Mozambique to e South Africa

[edit] Habitat

Rocky areas.

[edit] Behaviour

Its nest is a deep bowl on a horizontal surface or a neat quarter-sphere against a rock face or wall. It is constructed with mud pellets and lined with grass or feathers. The nest may be built on natural sites under cliff overhangs or on man-made structures such as buildings, dam walls, culverts and bridges. The nest may be reused for subsequent broods or in later years.

2-3 eggs, white with brown and grey blotches, are incubated by the female alone for 16-19 days to hatching. Both parents then feed the chicks. Fledging takes another 22-24 days, but the young birds will return to the nest to roost for a few days after the first flight.

Its diet includes insects.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.

[edit] External Links