Pacific Swallow

Pacific Swallow (Hirundo javanica) is a small glossy-blue swallow with a rufous forehead and throat and a moderately forked tail lacking the barn swallow's long 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 feeds on flying insects over coasts, open country and increasingly upland forest, builds a mud nest on sheltered structures and makes mainly local seasonal movements within tropical Asia and Pacific islands. 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).