Red-rumped Swallow
Cecropis daurica
A graceful aerial acrobat with a rusty rump.
Seen atKunja ·Jageshwar ·Barechhina ·Ranikhet
Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.
What the hills call it
Ababeel
/ a·baa·beel /अबाबील
Red-rumped Swallow — A graceful aerial acrobat with a rusty rump.
Field notes
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Hirundinidae · Swallows & martins
- Genus
- Cecropis
- Length
- 16–17 cm
- Weight
- 19–29 g
- At Kunja
- Summer visitor — breeds through the warm months
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A graceful swallow, blue-black above with a rusty-orange rump and nape and a deeply forked tail. Forever wheeling and gliding overhead.
What it eats
Flying insects, caught on the wing all day long over the fields and rooftops.
Where & when to spot it
Overhead almost anywhere in the open — above the courtyard, the fields and the village paths, hawking insects in long, easy glides.
Nesting & mating
Builds a remarkable flask-shaped mud nest with a tunnel entrance under an eave, bridge or rock overhang; three to five eggs.
In the field
When we’ve seen it
Most often photographed in March, usually in the middle of the day. That makes spring a clear window to spot it around the homestay.
Spotting tip: head out in the middle of the day, walk slowly and stop often, and listen as much as you look — most of these birds call before they show themselves.
In the lens
Red-rumped Swallow, photographed at Kunja
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
More to spot
PasseridaeHouse Sparrow
Passer domesticus
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MuscicapidaeBlue Whistling Thrush
Myophonus caeruleus
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SturnidaeCommon Myna
Acridotheres tristis
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PycnonotidaeHimalayan Bulbul
Pycnonotus leucogenys
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MegalaimidaeGreat Barbet
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CampephagidaeScarlet Minivet
Pericrocotus speciosus
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