Caribbean Martin

Sightings
Caribbean Martin Progne dominicensis is a breeding visitor to the island of Tobago and is plentiful at the Blue Waters Inn. Most sightings of this species are of birds in flight and sometimes perched on the hotel roof so it was with great interest that I found this bird investigating a hole in the trunk of a palm tree which had been occupied by a pair of Red-crowned Woodpeckers Melanerpes rubricapillus only the previous day. It provided a great opportunity to photograph this female bird at close range.

Species
Adult birds have a forked tail and relatively broad wings. Adult males are a glossy blue-black with contrasting white lower underparts. Females and juveniles are duller than the male, with grey-brown breast and flanks and white lower underparts. The female Caribbean Martin is very difficult to separate from Grey-breasted Martin P.chalybea which is common on Trinidad but not found on Tobago. It is usually present on Tobago from early February to late October.

Staus and Distribution
Caribbean Martin also known as White-bellied Martin is a large swallow which breeds on Caribbean islands from Jamaica east to Tobago. It has a status of Least Concern with an unknown population thought to be increasing and a range of just below one million square kilometres. It is a monotypic species.

References
Wikipedia; BirdLife; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 212.

Photograph
Taken in hazy morning light at 1/2500th second at f5.6 and ISO 640.