Bird Guide

Eastern Red-rumped Swallow vs Lesser Striped Swallow

Eastern Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica)

Eastern Red-rumped Swallow

Cecropis daurica

Small22 gGrassland

The eastern red-rumped swallow is 19 cm long with a deeply forked tail. It has blue upperparts other than a reddish collar (sometimes absent) and streaked chestnut rump. The face and underparts are white with heavy dark streaking. The wings are brown. The sexes are alike but juveniles are duller and browner, with a paler rump and shorter outer tail feathers. The population in mainland India, C. d. erythropygia, has the rump patch uniform dark chestnut without any dark shaft-streaks. The tail fork is shallow and the white patch on the inner web of the outer-tail feathers is indistinct. C. d.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Eastern Red-rumped Swallow
Recorded by Sonothèque ADVL · Call, flight call · Genêts, Manche, Normandie, France · CC0
Photo: yvesbas · CC BY 4.0
Lesser Striped Swallow (Cecropis abyssinica)

Lesser Striped Swallow

Cecropis abyssinica

Tiny13 gGrassland

The lesser striped swallow is 15–10 cm long. It has dark blue upperparts with a red rump and a rufous-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts are white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner, with less contrast and shorter outer tail feathers. There are five or six subspecies differing in the extent of the underpart streaking.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Lesser Striped Swallow
Recorded by Rion Lerm · Alarm call · Kruger Park (near Kruger National Park), Mopani, Limpopo, South Africa · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: B Pulman005 · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Eastern Red-rumped Swallow and Lesser Striped Swallow.