Angola Swallow ??? (2 Viewers)

[hannu]

More pics. Hi Eduardo, the return of the prodigal.

the 2nd pic: male bird

 

[hannu]

It has a very small redish patch on the head and on just below the beak, hardly visible. This image has been over colour saturated to show this detail. Sorry for the bad images.

In addition to the fine marknings (pearly-like) in the mantle is typical for young birds. The Redish patch on the forehead is quite small (height appr. 4-7mm ) in Barn Swallows (smaller and paler in youngs). Throat patch is bigger, usually dark wine red in males and paler brick red in females.
White spots in Tail feathers are usually smaller in females and bigger in males. Also the size of the white spots extend from inside to outside and the biggest white spots situated in outermost tail feathers (6TF).
Also there are more differences between sexes !

 

[Tom Tarrant]

Just saw this thread, got a couple of shots of Angola Swallow in Uganda earlier this year, one already posted.

http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/89172/sort/1/cat/all/page/1

Hope they help,

Tom

 

[MarcellC]

What a pleasant surprise! Someone birding where I grew up - Potchefstroom.

Leon, I've done a fair bit of birding around Potch during my guiding in SA and the Barn Swallows are hugely common there in summer - the peak being when you took those pictures. You actually get an idea of how many when they start congregating before they back north.

Must say though, if the Angola starts hanging around there, you'll have the whole SA birding crowd out there trying to get a rarity on their list )

Marcell