A record of Cuban/Caribbean Martin(Progne cryptoleuca/ dominicensis)for the Bahamas white below other than strong brownish couldbe CaribbeanMarnns, a speciesfamil- WilliamK. Hayes toneson the throat,breast, and sides(Fig- iar to him fromTobago Island. The white un- DepartmentofEarth and Biological Sciences ures 1-3). The white plumage below extend- derpartsclearly ruled out male Purple Martin ed well up the belly,approaching the chest andmale Cuban Martin (P. cryptoleuca), and LomaLinda University and contrasting sharply with thedark breast the contrastof the white underpartswith the and sides,although the demarcationap- dark throat,chest, and sidesruled out female LomaLinda, California 92350 pearedto showirregular borders, especially PurpleMartin. He did not considerin the whenthe birdswere perched, somewhat re- fieldthe possibilityof femaleCuban Martin ([email protected])calling Brown-chestedMartin (P tapera) (a speciesunfamiliar to him), whichis very (Figures2, 3). In flight,several birds (Figure similar to female Caribbean Martin, or the 1) showedan irregular border between lesslikely possibilityof SinaloaMartin (P. breastand belly that appearedto be the re- sinaloae)of western Mexico. AnthonyW. White suitof duskyshaft streaks or shahsmudges, and the undertail coverts also showed a few Discussion 6540Walhonding Road suchsmudges (Figure 1). Thethroat of sev- Identification of martins in the field can be eralbirds was noted to be slightlypaler but challengingin manycases and maynot be Bethesda,Maryland 20816 notwhite (Figure 3). The entireunderwing possiblein somecases on presentknowl- and the upperpartsappeared to be dark edge.Field separationof femaleCaribbean (spindalis•erizon.net)brown in the field. Martin fromfemale Cuban Martin is report- At thetime, Hayes suspected that the birds edlypossible based on the underpart pattern: Abstract Thispaper presents documentation of three femalemartins (Progne species) found in May 1997at WhiteCay, Exumas, Bahamas; their identification is uncertain, but Caribbean Martin (P. dominicensis) and CubanMartin (P cryptoleuca)would appear to be the mos!likely species involved. The slateof fieldidentification of femaleProgne is reviewed. Field Encounter At about0800 on 3 May 1997on WhiteCay (alsocalled Sandy Cay), at the southernter- minus of the Exumas Islands in the Bahamas, W. K. Hayesnoted three female-type martins (Prognespecies) in the snagsof a deadCa- suarina tree above the tent in which he was camping.He wasthere during an extended studyof the endangeredendemic White Cay Iguana(Cyclura rileyi cristata). He immedi- ately recognizedthe birdsas martinsbut knewthat they could not be femalePurple Martins (P subis).He studiedthem at very closerange (about 5 m) forabout 10 minutes and asked co-worker Cad Fuhri to take a se- Figure1.Female Cuban/Caribbean Martin,White Cay, Exumas, Bahamas on3 May1997. Some references suggest that fe- ries of photographs(Figures 1-3). During maleCuban Martins show more extensive paleplumage inthe breast than female Caribbean Martins, and that the contrast this time, the birds flew about and returned betweendark breast and pale belly ismere starkly demarcated inCuban, more blended inCaribbean. Thesefeatures may sug- repeatedlyto thesame tree. Their rolling vo- gestan identification ofthe White Cay birds asCuban Martins, buton present knowledge acertain identification maynot be cafizationswere obviously those of martins. possible.Amore remote possibility foroccurrence inthe Bahamas, female Sinaloa Martin dosely resembles female Hayesnoted that all threemartins were Cuban/Caribbeanbutis smaller. Photograph byCa#Fuhri. NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS southernBahamas on GreatInagua, Grand Turk,and Mayaguana Islands (Raffaele et al 1998);none of thesereports has been criti- callyreviewed by the BahamasBird Records Committee(A. W. White,pers. comm.), and at leastsome may refer to CubanMartin. The verysimilar but smallerSinaloa Martin, often combined with Cuban and Caribbean Mar- tinsas a singlespecies, Snowy-bellied Martin (P dominicorsissensu lato; see Turner and Rose 1989), has a broader area of white be- low,particularly in males,but femalesare re- portedlyvery similarto femaleCaribbean Martins(Ridgely and Tudor 1989). Sinaloa Martinwould seem less likely basedon ge- ography,but there is a publishedreport of the speciesfrom Bermuda (Raffaele et al. 1998), andso it shouldbe considered a possibility, if a remote one, in this case. Acknowledgments We thank Richard C. Banks for assistance in investigating specimens of Cuban and Caribbean Martins. Figure2.Female Cuban/Caribbean tvlartins,White Cay, Exumas, Bahamas on3 May1997. The incursion ofwhite from upper belly Literature cited intothe lower breast was deafly visible on perched birds; this feature may be more typical offemale Cuban than of female Caribbean Martin,but more study ofspecimens andlive birds isneeded todetermine variation inthis character. œhotograph by½arlFuhri. Raffaele,H., J. Wiley,O. Gatfido,A. Keith, andJ. Raffaele.1998. A Guideto the Birds in femaleCuban Martin, the white of the ab- Geographyis of little help in speculation of the WestIndies. Princeton University domen extends farther into the breast than on the identification of these martins: White Press,Princeton, New Jersey. in Caribbean,in which the duskybrown Cay lies lessthan 400 km from the nearest Ridgely,R. S., and G. Tudor.1989. The Birds breastextends farther down the breast;the breedingarea of CubanMartin and less than ofSouth America. Volume t. Universityof darkbreasl of femaleCaribbean is alsosup- 500 km from the nearestbreeding area of TexasPress, Austin, Texas. posedto blendmore gradually into thepale Caribbean Martin. Cuban Martin has never Turner, A., and C. Rose. 1989. A Handboobto belly,rather than being starkly set off, as in been reported from the Bahamas, but the Swallowsand Martinsof the World. Cuban(Raffaele et al. 1998);and the pres- CaribbeanMartin has been reported from the ChristopherHelm, London. enceof darkshaft streaks/smudges in other- wise white plumagebelow (e.g., undenail coverts,breast feathers) may also support identification as Cuban (Turner and Rose 1989), but this point is not clearlyadum- bratedin theliterature. Also, the upperparts of female Cuban Martins are said to be dark- er than those of female Caribbean Martins (Turnerand Rose 1989). The underpan pat- tern of the threemartins on White Cay-- both the distributionof dark and pale plumageand its contrast--wouldappear more like Cuban than CaribbeanMartin, at least based on the limited discussion of this identificationproblem in the literature. In researchingthe presentreport, A. W. White and RichardC. Banksstudied speci- mensof Cubanand Caribbean Martins, par- ticularlyfemales collected within the breed- ingrange during breeding season, at theU.S. NationalMuseum of NaturalHistory (Smith- sonJan).They measuredand/or compared the specimens'wing dimensions,extension of the undertail coverts in relation to the rec- trix tips, throatcolor, and the extentof the darkflanks along the white belly. In theseat- tributesthey were unable to find significant or consistent differences between the two speciesthat couldbe usedto identifythe Figure3.Female Cuban/Caribbean MarLin,White Cay, Exumas, Bahamas on3 May 1997. The slightly paler throat isa feature typ- birdsin thephotographs taken at WhiteCay icalof both female Cuban and female Caribbean Martins. Photograph byCarIFuhri. VOLUME 59 (2005) NUMBER 4 673 .