Widespread in Australia, the Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) is a small bird, a fast flyer, and is seen in a variety of habitats, from urban cities, forest, grasslands, farmland, wetlands and arid desert regions. Sometimes they can be seen at sea, hence the name ‘Welcome’ swallow, which comes from sailors who knew that the sight of a swallow meant land was not far away.
The Welcome Swallow is metallic blue-black above, light grey below on the breast and belly, and rust red on the forehead, throat and upper breast. It has a long forked tail, with a row of white spots on the individual feathers.
These swallows are approximately 15 cm long, which include the outer tail feathers. These feather are slightly shorter in the female. The young swallows are a buffy white, instead of rusty, on the forehead and throat, and have shorter tail streamers.
The Welcome Swallow can be seen swooping and gliding in search of flying insects.
Whilst the Welcome Swallows can build their mud nests in many different locations, their nests are most noticeably beneath bridges, under eaves and on the walls of buildings.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
- Informal: Gnathostomata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Passeriformes
- Suborder: Passeri
- Informal: Passerida
- Family: Hirundinidae
- Subfamily: Hirundininae
- Genus: Hirundo
- Subgenus: Hirundo (Hirundo)
- Species: Hirundo neoxena
Footnote & References
- Hirundo (Hirundo) neoxena Gould, 1843, Welcome Swallow, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/4e118c73-06a7-4131-bd67-5da5d2d61fd7
- Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/11882-Hirundo-neoxena
- Welcome Swallow, BirdLife Australia, https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/welcome-swallow/
- Welcome swallow, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_swallow
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