Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena Scientific name definitions

13–17 cm; 12–17 g. Has forehead rufous-chestnut, crown and upper­parts glossy steel-blue; wings and tail blackish-brown, tail deeply forked, white patch on inner webs of rectrices (except central pair); throat and upper breast rufous-chestnut, rest of underparts greyish-white, brown tinge on sides and underwing-coverts; undertail-coverts grey-brown, dark subterminally, with pale edges. Distinguished from H. tahitica by paler underparts, pale spots (rather than margins) on rectrices, longer outer tail feathers; from H. rustica by lack of blue band below throat. Female has shorter tail than male. Juvenile is duller and browner, rufous areas paler, tail shorter. Race carteri differs from nominate only in larger size.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Open country, coasts, cultivation and human habitations, often near water. Roosts in wetlands.

Resident and partial migrant; forms flocks after breeding, usually of up to 500 birds. Resident or partial migrant in W Australia and New Zealand; passage movements occur, e.g. in coastal Otago (S New Zealand), and flocks recorded outside breeding range, and in areas with few breeding birds, in non-breeding season, e.g. in Southland (S New Zealand). Partially migratory in E Australia; non-breeding visitor in N Australia, including Torres Strait, but also present in S, including Tasmania, in austral winter. Main passage movement Feb–Mar and Aug–Sept. Adults will return to same site to breed in successive years. Recent records also from New Guinea and New Caledonia and from other island groups.

Diet includes flies (Diptera), Hymenoptera, beetles (Coleoptera), bugs (both heteropterans and homopterans), stoneflies (Plecoptera), Odonata, caddis flies (Trichop­tera), Lepidoptera and springtails (Collembola). Forages alone or in small groups, low over ground; flight fast, with frequent turns. Follows other animals to take insects flushed by them. Recorded as feeding at night on moths attracted to lights, and on flies inside a building.

Song is a mixture of twittering and trills; contact call “seet” and a sharp alarm call “twsee”, “sweert” or “tit-swee”.

Jul–Apr, peak Sept–Oct, earlier inland than on coast; Aug–Feb in New Zealand; 2–3 broods. Solitary, sometimes in loose groups, with nests 0·1–1 m apart in one study; records of 20–25 nests under jetty and 500 birds in deserted farmhouse; aggressive towards intruders. Male fans tail during courtship displays, follows female during nest-building; may copulate on perch near nest. Nest constructed by both sexes, taking 6–24 days, most activity in morning, a half-cup made of mud pellets mixed with grass, lined with dry grass, rootlets, hair, wool and feathers, sometimes feathers added during incubation; placed on vertical surface close to overhang, 0·3–7·6 m (average 2·6 m) above ground or 0·3–12 m (average 1·72 m) above water, mostly in artificial site such as culvert, bridge, jetty, mine shaft, water tank, verandah, rafter inside building or on wall or under eaves, usually on outside of building, less often on cliff, in cave or in hollow tree; also recorded on other sites such as moving boat, mailbox, Petrochelidon ariel nest; old nests repaired and reused. Clutch 2–7 eggs, usually 4 or 5; clutch size averaged 4·5 in New Zealand, 3·9 in Australia (of 380 Australian clutches, 61·3% were of 4 eggs, 17·9% of 3, 16·8% of 5, and 4% of 6, 2 or 1, the last possibly reduced by predation); incubation by female, but male has been recorded on eggs, and also, rarely, male seen to bring food to incubating mate, period 14–19 days, in one study average 15·6 days; eggs hatch mostly over 1–2 days, chicks fed by both sexes, rate 17–24 feeds per hour at a nest with four chicks. Fledging period 18–23 days (average 20·6), longer in New Zealand (average 21·5 days) than in Australia (average 18·9); young fed near nest, and return to it to roost for a few days, sometimes up to c. 3 weeks, in one case while second clutch was laid and incubated. Average fledging success 74% and breeding success 53%; losses of eggs and chicks caused mainly by bad weather, nest competition from sparrows (Passer), predation, nest falls and disturbance. Oldest bird 6 years.

Not globally threatened. Common. Has extended range outside Australia since late 1950s. First recorded in New Zealand in 1958, in Northland, and present throughout Northland by 1965; numbers and range have increased, both on South I and North I and on islands offshore. Expansion possibly continuing; non-breeding individuals also recorded in last few decades in New Guinea and New Caledonia, as well as on other island groups. Has benefited from presence of artificial nest-sites. Spread in breeding distribution appears to have followed expansion of farmland.