Brown-chested martin

The brown-chested martin (Progne tapera) is a species of passerine bird in the swallow family.

Brown-chested martin
In Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Hirundinidae
Genus:	Progne
Species:	P. tapera
Binomial name
Progne tapera (Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms
Hirundo tapera Linnaeus, 1766

It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, the United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and is a vagrant to Chile and the Falkland Islands. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, rivers, and heavily degraded former forest.

It usually swoops at low heights, showing white on the sides of its tail, with wings bowed. It may dig burrows into banks to nest (or occasionally in snags) or sometimes use old hornero nests.^[1]

Diet

It eats insects, especially termites and winged ants.^[2]

Social Behavior

It often congregates in groups of up to tens of thousands around dusk.^[2]