Photo of a brown-chested martin, made by Steven Wytema in 2005 in Suriname. This swallow is rather common on the savanna in Suriname, where it captures flying insects. Suriname has two subspecies, one breeding and rather common in the savanna and one coming from the south in the months that there is winter overthere. Below they can be seen resting between Grey-breasted martins at a sleeping place with tens of thousands of martins. The first one is from the south (Progen tapera fusca with the brown pectoral band) and the last picture shows the local breeding swallow (Progne tapera tapera white throat, broad brown chestband and white belly) sitting next to a Grey-brested martin (at right in the picture). The photos below were made by Foek Chin Joe at Paranam in June 2007.
Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least 4 observations on different days and the largest ones 10 or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
| Distribution in Suriname (explanation) | |
| Coastal area |  |
| Savanna |  |
| Forests | |
| Mountain forests |  |
| Sipalawini savanna | |
Names in:
*