Globe âș Birds âș Common house martin
Common house martin migration Delichon urbicum
ⶠFollow the common house martin across the big globe
Press ⶠto play the year. Line: a simplified typical route, joining the main cluster of GBIF records in each month (adjusted for observer effort).
| Scientific name | Delichon urbicum |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 29 cm |
| IUCN status | Least concern |
| Records mapped | 1,965,515 (GBIF) |
| GPS / geolocator tracks | none with an open licence yet |
Facts from Wikidata Q26055 (CC0).
When does the common house martin arrive in the UK?
A summer visitor in the records: sightings rise sharply from mid April, are near their peak by late April, and fall away after mid October.
Bars: this speciesâ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 260,255 UK records. Weekly counts from the GBIF occurrence search API (country=GB). Dates are read from records, not from a survey, so treat them as a guide.
When do they arrive in and leave the UK? â
Migration in the data
1,965,515 GBIF records (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licences only) are mapped here, in 1.41° grid cells, month by month.
In Europe and Africa, the centre of the records (adjusted for observer effort) is furthest north in August (about 49°N) and furthest south in December (about 6°S).
More than half of the effort-adjusted signal there is south of the Equator in: November, December.
Month by month: centre of records in Europe and Africa
| Month | Centre (latitude) | South of the Equator |
|---|---|---|
| January | 4°N | 43% |
| February | 20°N | 23% |
| March | 30°N | 10% |
| April | 40°N | 3% |
| May | 46°N | 0% |
| June | 48°N | 0% |
| July | 48°N | 0% |
| August | 49°N | 0% |
| September | 45°N | 1% |
| October | 31°N | 15% |
| November | 1°N | 52% |
| December | 6°S | 62% |
Tracked birds
No openly licensed (CC0 / CC BY) tracking data package for this species was found in the Movebank Data Repository yet, so only records are shown.
About the common house martin
The western house martin, sometimes called the common house martin, northern house martin or, particularly in Europe, just house martin, is a migratory passerine bird of the swallow family which breeds in Europe, north Africa and west-central Asia; and winters in sub-Saharan Africa and southwestern Asia. It feeds on insects which are caught in flight, and it migrates to climates where flying insects are plentiful. âŠ
From the Wikipedia article âWestern house martinâ (revision 1368664223), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
GBIF occurrence records, licence CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, observations only (no specimens), filtered with: taxonKey=2489214&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&hasGeospatialIssue=false&basisOfRecord=HUMAN_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=MACHINE_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=OBSERVATION. Monthly queries: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec. GBIF.org (23 October 2026) occurrence data accessed via the GBIF API; a GBIF download DOI is still to be added. Contributing datasets.