Eastern Red-rumped Swallow

The eastern red-rumped swallow is a swallow about 19cm long with a deeply forked tail. It has blue upperparts apart from a reddish collar, which is sometimes absent, and a chestnut rump; the face and underparts are white with heavy dark streaks, and the wings are brown. The sexes look alike, and juveniles are duller and browner with a paler rump and shorter tail streamers. Subspecies differ in the amount of streaking on the rump and underparts. The European and African red-rumped swallows were formerly included in this species (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in open, often hilly country with clearings and cultivation across eastern and southern Asia. Its contact call is a pin, its alarm a chi-chi-chi, and its song a soft twittering. The northern subspecies are long-distance migrants, wintering as far as Indonesia, Malaysia and northern Australia. Eight subspecies are recognised (Wikipedia, general species account).