Progne chalybea
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The grey-breasted martin (Progne chalybea) is a large swallow from Central and South America. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the grey-breasted martin in the second volume of his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. He used the French name L'hirondelle de Cayenne and the Latin name Hirundo Cayanensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. The grey-breasted martin was subsequently described by the French polymath, the Comte de Buffon, in 1779 and by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1783. Latham used the English name "Chalybeate swallow" but neither Buffon nor Latham introduced a scientific name.
The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin included the grey-breasted martin when he revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1789. He placed it with the swallows in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo chalybea. The specific epithet chalybea is Latin meaning "steely". The grey-breasted martin is now one of nine species placed in the... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | São Luís | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 7 | Natal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 9 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-breasted Martin sighting in Belém on a given day, based on 156 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 12th most-seen of the 144 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-breasted Martin in Belém on a given day, against about 40% in June, the lowest month. That is one of Belém's wettest months, with about 440 mm of rain against 75 mm in September.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray-breasted Martin sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 43 cities where we can rate Gray-breasted Martin sightings, Belém has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come São Luís (Brazil, about 50%) and Guayaquil (Ecuador, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-breasted Martin is recorded against all the birds logged in Belém (156 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
