Brown throated martin

Introduction: Brown-throated martins (Riparia paludicola) are marsh-dwellers, inhabiting rivers, dams, estuaries, open wetlands and sewage works. This species perch on waterside vegetation and fences and huddle at night in small groups communally on reeds.

Distribution: Sparse population throughout Namibia less for the Zambezi Region (formerly the Caprivi Strip). Observed near Epupa Falls, Etosha National Park, Orange River, Fish River Canyon, Swakopmund.

Diet: Forages with other swallows and swifts over water, skimming insects from the surface. Eats mosquitoes, flies, midges, small beetles and grasshoppers.

Description: Uniform brown, with slightly paler rump. Flight feathers dark brown. Belly and undertail white.

Breeding: Colonial nesters with 6 to 12 burrows per colony, dug along sand banks with a saucer-shaped nest lined with grass common. Females lay 2 to 4 eggs between May and July and incubated in 12 days.

Size: 12cm.

Weight: 12g.