About 90 species of small songbirds built for catching insects in the air, with long, pointed wings and often forked tails. The barn swallow, with blue upperparts and a red face, is the most widespread swallow in the world.
Quick answers
What is it?Bird
Carnivore?Insects only
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Daytime
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?No
At a glance
Found inWorldwide
ColoursBlue, White, Red
SizeTiny
Length17–19 cm, including tail streamers (barn swallow)
Weight16–22 g (barn swallow)
Legs2
Covered inFeathers
Lives inflocks
Lives for3–8 years
Can fly
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Every continent; barn swallows even turn up in Antarctica as vagrants.
- What it eats
- Flying insects.
Did you know
Barn swallows fly from Europe and Asia to southern Africa for the winter, and back each spring.
Barn swallows from across Eurasia winter in southern Africa and tend to return to the same wintering spot each year.
The barn swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.
Often confused with
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