Barn Swallow

Hirundo rustica (Linnaeus, 1758)

2018-06-20 Tyumen region, Tyumen district, village Golovina	© Nadezhda Bogomyakova

Description

The Barn Swallow is a little bird with long body, long deep-forked tail, long with pointed tip wings, short and broad bill and short and slack legs. The adult male has steel blue upperparts and a rufous forehead, chin and throat, which are separated from the off-white (or rusty on some subspecies) underparts by a broad dark blue breast band. The outer tail feathers are elongated, giving the distinctive deeply-forked "swallow tail." There is a line of white spots across the outer end of the upper tail. The female is similar in appearance to the male, but the tail streamers are shorter, the blue of the upperparts and breast band is less glossy, and the underparts more pale. The juvenile is browner and has a paler rufous face and whiter underparts. It also lacks the long tail streamers of the adult. Length 17–23 cm including 2–7 cm of elongated outer tail feathers. It has a wingspan of 32–34.5 cm and weighs 16–22 grams.

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