The lesser striped swallow (''Cecropis abyssinica'') is a large

swallow 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 ...

. It breeds in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

from

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

and southern

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

south into eastern

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It is partially migratory with South African birds wintering further north. West African birds leave the north of the breeding range in the dry season.

Habitat

This is a bird of wooded, mainly lowland habitats. The lesser striped swallow prefers less open habitats, and is replaced in

montane grassland Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than th ...

by the

greater striped swallow The greater striped swallow (''Cecropis cucullata'') is a large swallow that is native to Africa south of the equator. Taxonomy The greater striped swallow was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in h ...

, ''Hirundo cucullata''. It is common and often found around human habitation.

Description

The lesser striped swallow is 15–10 cm long. It has dark blue upperparts with a red rump and a

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a dia ...

-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts are white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner, with less contrast and shorter outer tail feathers. There are five or six subspecies differing in the extent of the underpart streaking. The lesser striped swallow has heavier and darker underparts striping, a deeper red rump, and a brighter head colour than the larger greater striped swallow.

Behavior

It feeds mainly on flying insects, but has been known to eat small fruits. The flight is erratic, and the call is a nasal ''zeh zeh zeh zeh zeh''.

Breeding

The lesser striped swallow builds a bowl-shaped mud nest with a tubular entrance on the underside of a suitable structure. The nest has a soft lining, and may be reused in later years. The nest may be built in a cave, under a

rock overhang An overhang is a rock face or artificial climbing wall with a slope of more than 90°, i.e. it slopes beyond the Vertical direction, vertical. Particularly severe overhangs that reach, or nearly reach, the horizontal plane, horizontal, are referr ...

or a tree branch. This species has benefited from its willingness to use buildings, bridges, culverts and similar structures. Given the choice, it will select a high nest site. The eggs are glossy white sometimes with a few brown spots; three eggs are a typical clutch. Incubation is by the

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

alone for 14–16 days to hatching. Both parents then feed the chicks. Fledging takes another 17–19 days, but the young birds will return to the nest to roost for a few days after their first flight.

Gallery

File:Lesser Striped Swallow, Cecropis abyssinica at Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa (10536463865).jpg, File:Lesser Striped Swallow, Cecropis abyssinica at Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa (10536244406).jpg, File:Lesser Striped Swallow (Cecropis abyssinica) in nest ... (30437073874).jpg, File:Cecropis abyssinica MHNT.jpg,

References

* Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton, ''SASOL Birds of Southern Africa'', * Turner and Rose, ''Swallows and Martins''

External links

* Lesser Striped Swallow
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1589215 lesser striped swallow Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa Birds of the Gulf of Guinea lesser striped swallow