Adult © Lars Petersson | My World of Bird Photography eBird S65190421 Macaulay Library ML 205997221
Adult © Ian Davies
Adult © Srinivasa Shenoy
Immature © Lars Petersson | My World of Bird Photography
Adult and immature © Mike Wheeler

White-headed Sawwing Psalidoprocne albiceps

Sign in to see your badges

Identification

POWERED BY MERLIN
No audio available.
Submit yours

A small, fork-tailed, sooty-brown swallow with different plumages for the sexes: distinctive male has a pure white head and narrow black eye stripe; female has a mostly ashy head with white throat. Immature lacks white on the head. Pairs use clearings and edges of evergreen forest, open woodland, and cultivation. Resident in East Africa, but an intra-African breeding migrant in Zambia and Malawi between October and May. Superficially more similar to swifts than other swallows. Note the differences in flight style: flightier with deep wing beats and rapid changes of direction, as opposed to the more stiff-winged flight of swifts.

POWERED BY MERLIN