Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) is a sleek swallow with blue upperparts, a reddish forehead and throat and a long deeply forked tail with narrow streamers. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It catches flying insects over farmland, wetlands and settlements, often nests in an open mud cup attached inside buildings and migrates widely between Northern Hemisphere breeding areas and warmer winter quarters. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).