Black-capped Swallow vs White-backed Swallow

Black-capped Swallow

Atticora pileata

Tiny12 gForest

The black-capped swallow is about 11.5 to 13.5 cm (4.5 to 5.3 in) long and weighs about 12 g (0.42 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a glossy black head with brown-speckled white cheeks and throat. Their back is sepia brown, their rump a darker brown, and their uppertail coverts dark sooty brown. Their tail longish, forked, and dull sooty black. Their wing's lesser coverts are black to brownish black, their secondary and inner greater coverts are dark grayish brown, and their flight feathers brownish black. Voice: The black-capped swallow's calls "include a buzzy electric pzzzzzeeet! and a more liquid pweeet-pweeet".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Richard Bowdler Sharpe · Public domain

White-backed Swallow

Cheramoeca leucosterna

Tiny14 gRiverine

An adult white-backed swallow averages 15 cm long, similar in size to other swallows found in Australia. The adult has a mottled grey cap above white eyebrows and a grey eye. It has a dark stripe running from the lores and across the nape of the neck. The back and most of the breast is white. The belly, wings and tail are black. The white-backed swallow has a deeply forked tail, with curved and pointed wings. The short bill is black; the legs and feet are grey. It has a slender, streamlined body. The eyes consist of a prominent, dark iris.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: finch_fanatic · CC0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Black-capped Swallow and White-backed Swallow.