red-rumped swallow

The European red-rumped swallow (''Cecropis rufula'') is a small passerine bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae. It breeds in open hilly country of southern Europe and north Africa east to Iran, Pakistan and northwest India. During winter it migrates to Africa and southwest Asia. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the eastern red-rumped swallow (''Cecropis daurica''), united under the common name of “red-rumped swallow”.

European red-rumped swallows are somewhat similar in habits and appearance to the other aerial insectivores, such as the related swallows and the unrelated swifts (order Apodiformes). They have blue upperparts and dusky underparts.

They resemble barn swallows, but are darker below and have pale or reddish rumps, face and neck collar. They lack a breast band, but have black undertails. They are fast fliers and they swoop on insects while airborne. They have broad but pointed wings.

European red-rumped swallows build quarter-sphere nests with a tunnel entrance lined with mud collected in their beaks, and lay 3 to 6 eggs. They normally nest under cliff overhangs in their mountain homes, but will readily adapt to buildings such as mosques and bridges.

They do not normally form large breeding colonies, but are gregarious outside the breeding season. Many hundreds can be seen at a time on the plains of India.

Taxonomy

The European red-rumped swallow was formally described in 1835 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck under the binomial name ''Hirundo rufula''. The specific epithet is from Latin ''rufulus'' meaning "reddish". The species was formerly treated as a subspecies of the red-rumped swallow (''Cecropis daurica'') now renamed the eastern red-rumped swallow. The species were split based on differences in morphology and genetic divergence. The European red-rumped swallow is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Distribution and habitat

The European red-rumped swallow breeds across southern Europe and southern Europe and north Africa east to Iran, Pakistan and northwest India. During winter it migrates to Africa and southwest Asia.Turner (1989) pp. 201–204

Behaviour and ecology

These swallows are usually found over grassland where they hawk insects. They may sometimes take advantage of grass fires and grazing cattle that flush insects into the air.

Breeding

It is thought that the sequence "open-nest" to "closed nest" to "retort nest" represents the evolutionary development in the mud-building swallows, and individual species follow this order of construction. A retort builder like red-rumped swallow starts with an open cup, closes it, and then builds the entrance tunnel. It has been proposed that the development of closed nests reduced competition between males for copulations with the females. Since mating occurs inside the nest, the difficulty of access means other males are excluded. This reduction in competition permits the dense breeding colonies typical of the ''Delichon'' and ''Petrochelidon'' genera, but colonial breeding is not inevitable; most ''Cecropis'' species are solitary nesters.

Conservation status

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the organisation responsible for assessing the conservation status of species. A species is assessed as subject to varying levels of threat if it has a small, fragmented or declining range, or if the total population is less than 10,000 mature individuals, or numbers have dropped by more than 10% in ten years or with a continuing decline over generations. The red-rumped swallow has a huge range and a population numbered in millions. It is not known to be seriously declining in range or numbers, so it is classed as Least Concern. Retrieved 3 January 2010

The European red-rumped swallow is extending its range northward in Europe, colonising France and Romania in recent decades. The European population is estimated at 100,000 to 430,000 breeding pairs or 300,000 to 1,290,000 individuals.

References

Sources

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External links

Photos and videosAgeing and sexing (PDF; 2.0 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze

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European red-rumped swallow
Birds of Eurasia
European red-rumped swallow
Taxa named by Coenraad Jacob Temminck