Asian House Martin

Characteristics

A black swallow from head to back. The tail is white at the base and has a shallow concave shape. They have shorter tail feathers than swallows, and can be distinguished by looking at their tails and observing their silhouettes in flight. It has white hair on its legs, which makes it cute. While flying in groups of two to several, they call "jupi-ju-pi".

Ecology

Distributed from mountains to urban areas. Builds nests on rocks and artificial objects from around April and breeds. In recent years, nesting under bridges has increased. They move in groups and fly around their nests for long periods of time. It rarely descends to the ground, but occasionally descends to collect nest material.

Habitat

From the latter half of March, I began to see them flying in groups near Owadabashi, Hachioji City. It is often seen along the river in the morning during the day. Shortly after dawn, they all leave their nests all at once. At this time, I was able to observe the figure that landed on the ground and the figure that perched on the electric wire.