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Learn how to identify swifts, swallows and martins. These birds are all summer visitors to the UK. Here's how you can find the difference between a swift and a swallow or work out what kind of martin you could have spotted!
Swallows are small birds with dark, glossy-blue backs, red throats, pale underparts and long tail streamers. They are extremely agile in flight and spend most of their time in the air. They are widespread breeding birds in the Northern Hemisphere, migrating south in winter.
The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The term "swallow" is used as the common name for Hirundo rustica in the UK [1] and Ireland. [2] .
Scientific name: Hirundo rustica. Family: Hirundinidae (swallows and martins) Habitat: grassland, heathland, woodland, towns. Diet: flies and aphids. Predators: birds of prey, especially hobbies. Origin: native. What do swallows look like? Swallows are dark blue with a cream underside.
Swallows are widespread and common birds of farmland and open pasture near water. They are agile fliers, feeding on flying insects while on the wing. Before they migrate back to their wintering grounds in Africa, they can be seen gathering to roost in wetlands, particularly reedbeds.
Recorded breeding in 95% of 10-km squares, the Swallow has the most extensive distribution of any summer migrant in Britain & Ireland. It is absent only from a few areas of northern Scotland and from central London.
Tell swifts, swallows, house martins and sand martins apart and find out when they arrive in the UK with our easy guide, top ID tips and images.
