Abstract

Many hirundine (swallows and martins) species are declining throughout their ranges. The Common House Martin Delichon urbicum is a migratory hirundine that breeds throughout Europe but has shown recent declines in some parts of the UK, particularly in the south. We conducted a large‐scale citizen science survey to assess how the breeding performance of House Martins, measured by the number of attempted broods and nest success, is influenced by nest‐specific, landscape and weather factors. Pairs in eastern parts of the UK started breeding earlier than those in the west, and breeding performance was higher in eastern regions. There was no effect of latitude on either aspect of breeding performance, so our measures of breeding performance alone do not help to explain differences in population trends across the UK. The probability of attempting multiple broods and producing successful nests was higher in previously used nests than in newly built nests, and in artificial nests than in natural nests. Nests built on plastic soffits of buildings were less likely to be multi‐brooded and less likely to be successful compared with other materials. Suggested conservation measures therefore include discouraging the removal of old nests and encouraging the installation of artificial nests, particularly on buildings with plastic soffits. This study provides comprehensive insight into the breeding biology of House Martins, and although our findings do not show conclusively that breeding performance is the sole driver of population trends, they go some way to explain declines in House Martins and ultimately provide information that may help conserve this species.

Highlights

  • Many species of aerial-feeding insectivorous birds, including those in the hirundine family, have shown declines in many parts of the world (Gru€ebler et al 2010, Paquette et al 2014, Woodward et al 2018)

  • We found no effect of the amount of improved grassland, we did show a positive effect of the presence of livestock within 500 m of the nest, which might be associated with high abundance of aerial invertebrates and might benefit House Martin as well as other hirundines that feed on aerial invertebrates closer to the ground (Gru€ebler et al 2010)

  • Given the findings presented here, it is suggested that to maximize breeding performance in subsequent years by reducing nest-building effort, previously used natural nests should not be removed from buildings

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Summary

Introduction

Many species of aerial-feeding insectivorous birds, including those in the hirundine family (swallows and martins), have shown declines in many parts of the world (Gru€ebler et al 2010, Paquette et al 2014, Woodward et al 2018). The importance of different geomaterials used for nest construction has been investigated (Papoulis et al 2018), there appear to be no studies on how the surface material of the building might affect breeding performance. Agricultural intensification may reduce the availability of aerial invertebrates through changes in plant structure and diversity and use of pesticides (Benton et al 2002, Gru€ebler et al 2010), negatively affecting breeding performance (Stanton et al 2016). Populations have increased by 33% in Northern Ireland, and have remained stable in Scotland during this period (Harris et al 2020) These patterns are similar to other hirundine species in the UK, suggesting that any drivers of population change may be local to the UK (Piersma 2016). Much of our knowledge is based on studies carried out before pronounced declines, so our understanding of House Martin demography is outdated

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