From Opus

Subspecies filifera
Photo by James Williams
Hampi, Karnataka, Southern India, February 2005

Hirundo smithii

[edit] Identification

14cm

• Bright blue upperparts
• Flight feathers are darker
• White underpartsC
• Chestnut crown
• Blue mask through the eye
• White spots on the tail
• Outer tail feather are very long filaments
  

Sexes are similar, but the female has shorter "wires"
Juveniles have a brown crown, back and tail.

Subspecies smithii
Photo by swiss7
Parfuri, Kruger National Park, South Africa

[edit] Distribution

Two distinct populartions Africa (smithii) and Asia (filifera):
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland
Asia: Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Eastern and Western Himalayas, Bangladesh, Bhutan
Southeast Asia: Indochina, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

There are 2 subspecies;:

• H. s. smithii:

• Widespread Africa south of the Sahara

• H. s. filifera:

• Afghanistan and Baluchistan to India, Myanmar and Indochina

[edit] Habitat

Open country near water and human habitation, Marula savannah, open woodland, bushveld, rice fields, marshland

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet consists mainly of flying insects.

[edit] Breeding

The 3 or four eggs are laid in a half-bowl nest lined with mud. It is fixed to the vertical surfaces of bridges and buildings or under cliff ledges.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Avibase
3. NatureTrek
4. Wikipedia
5. BF Member observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links