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One of eleven species of swallow in the genus Petrochelidon (one of which, the Red Sea Cliff Swallow P. perdita, is known from just one dead specimen found in May 1984 at Sanganeb lighthouse, north-east of Port Sudan) - or one of 30+ Hirundo species still - the South African Cliff Swallow P. spilodera is [...]

The following images won’t win any awards, but I thought I’d post them anyway. They’re of Common Swifts Apus apus, their crops bulging with food, flying with Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica over a field opposite the exquisite manor house at Great Chalfield.
To a local birder just twenty years ago there would have been nothing [...]

Everyone knows that New York City is an extremely expensive place to live.  If one is lucky enough to find a place that one likes one must often pay in rent per month what would easily be a mortgage payment in a more sane part of the country.  So is it any surprise that free [...]

Back in 2005 (in the days of my old Charlie’s Bird Blog in fact) I posted a remarkably inspirational story about Pierfrancesco Micheloni, an Italian researcher who had gone to Ebbaken-Boje, Nigeria and discovered the largest roost of wintering Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica in Africa - an incredible 4 MILLION birds roosting in Elephant Grass [...]

The beautiful White-throated Swallow Hirundo albigularis breeds in southern Africa from Angola and Zambia southwards to the Cape in South Africa. It is mainly migratory, wintering in Angola, Zambia and southern Zaire. A bird of open country and grassland, White-throated Swallows typically occur in the highlands and are almost always found near water (even small [...]

Ethiopian Swallow Hirundo aethiopica
Abuja, Nigeria. July 2008

The Ethiopian Swallow is widespread and common in a wide variety of open habitats across much of Africa (from Senegal to Somalia). Obviously closely-related to other Hirundo swallows, it generally resembles (and behaves) much like a Barn Swallow and in flight at a distance appears similar: close views though [...]

were found in Arkansas.  While conjoined twins would not be big news were they mammals, among birds conjoined twins, formed from a double-yolked egg, are a serious rarity.  The specimen (the birds did not survive) will be sent to the Smithsonian.

Being upstate is great.  Not only do I get to see my folks, swim in their pool, and enjoy the great outdoors, but I also get tips about the locations of cool birds.  But I really shouldn’t have needed a tip to know the location of the Cliff Swallows I’ve checked out a couple of [...]

I’ve always been an enormous fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I love everything they’ve done, but of their movies, I’m most enamored of Monty Python and The Holy Grail. What other comedy manages to lever its jokes off as proud and noble a straight-man as King Arthur himself (played by the late, great [...]

Greater Striped Swallow Cecropis/Hirundo cucullata
Suikerbosrand, South Africa. May 2008
 
The Greater Striped Swallow Cecropis/Hirundo cucullata is a large swallow breeding in South Africa, Namibia and southern Zimbabwe. It is migratory wintering further north in Angola, Tanzania and southern Zaire. A bird of dry open country (such as the highveld grassland at Suikerbosrand where these photos were [...]

Protecting roosting swallows in West Africa: Pierfrancesco Micheloni and Ebbaken-Boje
 

 
Anyone who keeps a blog will spend a great deal of time online - sometimes just messing about “researching” (comparing your writing with other bloggers, wondering how you can present your photos a little better, joining Yahoo groups), and sometimes reading as many websites as [...]

The following photos are of Black Saw-wing Psalidoprocne pristoptera - a species with as many as twelve races depending on the authority consulted. They were trapped and banded at the huge swallow roost in Ebbaken-Boje in eastern Nigeria where perhaps two taxa are regularly occurring: the widespread West African petiti, a brownish-bronze glossed form with [...]