Red-rumped Swallows are distinctive, looking much like a Swallow but with a pale rump which may not be as obviously red as the bird’s name suggests. Other useful identification features are the pale throat, pale ring around the nape and the black undertail coverts which contrast sharply with the pale belly. Red-rumped Swallows also have fatter more ‘pumped-up’ bodies which are greatly elongated at the rear end so the tail looks longer, even though the tail prongs of the adults are actually shorter.

Nests in caves or in man-made tunnels (eg under roads), often, but not necessarily, in hilly areas.

An annual vagrant in spring and autumn to Britain, most freqently on the south and east coasts. 284 British and Irish records up to the end of 1995.

Widespread in Iberia, Greece and much of Turkey, but restricted elsewhere.

©BirdGuides 1999