Mascarene Martin at Alphonse

Chris Narty has reported a Mascarene Martin Phedina borbonica at Point Tamatave, Alphonse Island on 25 February 2019. SBRC has accepted 16 previous records of this species, all but two of which occurred in the outer islands of Seychelles.

There are two races of Mascarene Martin, the nominate race resident at Mauritius and Reunion. and race madagascariensis breeding at Madagascar, dispersing June–August within Madagascar and also migrating to East Africa at this time.

Where it has been possible to assign race, all Seychelles records have been the Madagascar race, as would be expected. Curiously only two of the 16 accepted records has been during the known migration period and the current observation is again when birds are normally thought to be resident at the breeding grounds.