Hill Swallow

The hill swallow is a small swallow about 13cm long, with a blue back, browner wings and tail, a red face and throat and dusky underparts. It differs from the barn swallow and the welcome swallow in its shorter, less deeply forked tail. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Pacific swallow (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is associated with coasts but is increasingly spreading into forested uplands, and it is resident apart from some local seasonal movements. Like other swallows it is a fast flier that feeds on insects, especially flies, caught on the wing. It builds a neat cup of mud pellets, collected in its bill, under a cliff ledge or on a building, bridge or tunnel, lines it with softer material and lays up to four eggs. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka and resident with a restricted range, has too little data for a trend, and rates it a Moderate conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).