denilsonoz's Favourites

It took me a couple of days to realize what this was! It was perched with the considerably smaller Northern Rough-winged Swallows on wires at the Zamorano horse farm. It was notably larger and with much more deeply forked tail, although not as much larger as I would expect for a Purple Martin. I don't normally see any martins perched with the swallows at this particular roosting site (swallows are there every day for months on end, year after year). However, there is a nearby building with nests of Gray-breasted Martin and I assumed this was a juvenile. I discarded Brown-chested Martin at the time because I (mistakenly) thought that it would have a bright white throat. I noted the pale nape and thought to document it in photos in case it turned out to be an early migrant Purple Martin (out of range). A short while later I found a typical Gray-breasted Martin on a wire, about 100 m away, which I thought could be from the same family (see next iNat report). Now, looking at the photos, I realize that this bird matches well references for BCMA. Note the brown flanks, white tufts on inner flanks, and the dark line down the center of the chest. Even the paler nape is typical. The tail seems much more forked than the Gray-breasted Martins I usually see, but I'm not sure if that is actually a distinguishing character or just individual variation.