Pale Sand Martin

Riparia diluta (Sharpe et Wyatt, 1893)

2019-05-18 Aydarkul	© Vyacheslav Yusupov

Description

The Pale Sand Martin and Common Sand Martin have long been treated as conspecific. The Pale Sand Martin is smaller and slimmer than Common Sand Martin and has a shallower tail-fork. The upperparts are paler and more greyish-brown than in Common Sand Martin, the breast-band is paler as well and more grey–brown. The breast band is usually not only paler, but also less clear-cut than in Common Sand Martin and therefore less contrasting with an especially diffuse lower border. In some birds, the breast-band is complete in the middle, in others however, the middle of the breast is only slightly darker than the rest of the underparts and gives the impression of a broken breast-band with the paler centre merging in the darker sides. The head is also clearly paler than in Common Sand Martin, with especially the crown and ear-coverts being much paler and contrasting with the dark eye and the darker lores. This contrast is much less pronounced in Common Sand Martin. There is only a diffuse border between the ear-coverts and the paler throat. In Common Sand Martin, the ear-coverts are much darker with a clear-cut border and a strong contrast with the pale (often almost pure white, sometimes buffish) throat.

References

Manuel Schweizer & Raffael Aye " Identification of the Pale Sand Martin Riparia diluta in Central Asia". Alula 4-2007.