Sand Martin

The bank swallow, called the sand martin in the Old World, is a migratory swallow with a wide summer range covering practically the whole Holarctic, from Europe across Asia to the Pacific and throughout North America. It winters in eastern and southern Africa, southern Asia and South America. The species name means of the riverbank (Wikipedia, general species account).

There are three or four weakly defined subspecies, and the pale martin of northern India and southeastern China was formerly sometimes counted as one (Wikipedia, general species account).