When do house martins arrive in and leave 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.

When do house martins arrive in the UK?

In the GBIF records, UK sightings of the common house martin rise sharply from mid April and are near their peak by late April.

When do house martins leave the UK?

UK sightings fall away after mid October.

Where do house martins go in winter?

From December to February the strongest signal in the effort-adjusted GBIF records is around South Africa and Spain. The globe shows the whole winter range month by month.

Common house martin in the UK, month by month

Bars: this species’ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY 4.0 only), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 260,255 UK records (occurrence search API, country=GB, weekly). Dates come from sightings, not a survey, so treat them as a guide.

See the common house martin migration on the 3D globe →

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. …

From the Wikipedia article “Western house martin” (revision 1368664223), CC BY-SA 4.0, shortened at a sentence end. Winter/summer areas: country containing the monthly hotspot of effort-adjusted GBIF records, using Natural Earth boundaries (public domain).

Other UK summer visitors: see the full list with arrival and departure dates.