Bird Guide

Red-breasted Swallow vs Sri Lanka Swallow

Red-breasted Swallow (Cecropis semirufa)

Red-breasted Swallow

Cecropis semirufa

Small30 gGrassland

The red-breasted swallow is similar to the mosque swallow but is slightly smaller and has longer tail streamers, both species having a blue crown and mantle contrasting with a rufous rump and underparts, In the red-breasted swallow the dark crown extends below the eye and there is no white on the underwing. The juvenile is similar to the red-rumped swallow but has blue on the side of the head rather than dull red.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Andrew Deacon · CC0
Sri Lanka Swallow (Cecropis hyperythra)

Sri Lanka Swallow

Cecropis hyperythra

Small22 gGrassland

It is a large swallow with a tail which forks deeply, and the combination of deep rufous underside and navy blue rump without any marks is a unique feature of this species. Its rufous underside can be used to tell it apart from the red-rumped swallow. It is a passerine, which means it has three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward, allowing it to perch.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Mickey Wu · CC BY 4.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Red-breasted Swallow and Sri Lanka Swallow.