Red-chested Swallow
Photo: Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland · CC BY-SA 2.0

Swallows

Red-chested Swallow

Hirundo lucida

LCLeast Concern
Family
Swallows (Hirundinidae)
Order
Passeriformes

Overview

The red-chested swallow (Hirundo lucida) is a small non-migratory passerine bird found in West Africa, the Congo Basin and Ethiopia. It has a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings.
It was formerly considered a subspecies of the closely resembling barn swallow. However, the adult red-chested swallow differs in being slightly smaller than its migratory relative, in addition to having a narrower blue breast band and shorter tail streamers.

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.