Crag Martin

Ptyonoprogne rupestris (Scopoli, 1769)

Name in other languages

In the region under consideration, few records of Crag Martins, a species of the mountains of southern Eurasia, exist. Sushkin (1914) reported Crag Martins nesting locally on rock faces in Tuva along the Yenisey next to the mouth of the Elegest River (Otykh-tash and Khairkhan mountains). The species also occurs in the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Records from 1907 reported by P. V. Nesterov indicate a colony attributed to this species on the Yenisey River, 15 km below the mouth of the Us River. Recently, the Crag Martin was found as a rare breeding bird in the West Sayan Mountains lining the Yenisey River (Sokolov et al. 1983; Petrov and Rudkovsky 1985). Between July 6 and 8, 1982, N. Suprankova and 0. Nikonova — members of our expedition — observed small groups of Crag Martins (10-20 birds) near steep cliffs 50 meters high not far from the mouth of the Us River.

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