The

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Hirundo'' is a group of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

s in the family

Hirundinidae 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 t ...

(swallows and martins). The genus name is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for a swallow. These are the typical swallows, including the widespread

barn swallow The barn swallow (''Hirundo rustica'') is the most widespread species of swallow in the world, occurring on all continents, with vagrants reported even in Antarctica. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply f ...

. Many of this group have blue backs, red on the face and sometimes the rump or nape, and whitish or

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 d ...

underparts. With fifteen species this genus is the largest in its family.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Hirundo'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

''. The genus name is the

word for a swallow. Linnaeus included eight species in the genus and of these

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

designated the

(''Hirundo rustica'') as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

Extant species

The genus contains sixteen species. The linear sequence is based on two

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies published in 2005 and 2018.

Extinct species

There are at least two fossil species included in this genus: *†''Hirundo gracilis'' (late Miocene of Polgardi, Hungary)Kessler, E. (2013). Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. ''Hantkeniana Budapest'' 8: 37-149. *†''Hirundo major'' (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary)

Former species

Some authorities, either presently or formerly, recognize several additional species as belonging to the genus ''Hirundo'' including: * West African swallow (as ''Hirundo domicella'')

Distribution and habitat

All of the species are found in the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

, although one, the barn swallow, is

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

, also occurring in the Americas.

Gallery

File:Hirundo rustica at Montlake Playfield, Seattle 03.jpg, File:BARN SWALLOW.jpg, File:Wire-tailed Swallow Hirundo smithii by Dr. Raju Kasambe.jpg, File:Hirundo rustica nest Kuivaniemi 20140614 02.JPG, File:Hirundo rustica gutturalis nest and 3 eggs.JPG, File:Hirundo smithii MHNT.jpg,

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Hirundinidae-stub cs:Vlaštovka