The blue swallow , or the blue real swallow [1] ( lat. Hirundo nigrita ), is a species of insectivorous passerine birds from the family Swallow (Hirundinidae) [2] . It lives in West and Central Africa, does not migrate.
| Blue swallow |
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| Scientific classification |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| Infrastructure : | Passerida |
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| International scientific name |
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Hirundo nigrita GR Gray , 1845 |
| Area |
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| Security status |
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Least ConcernedIUCN 3.1 Least Concern : 22712305 |
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Species epithet - nigrita , formed from the Latin word nigrum - black [3] .
Appearance
The blue swallow is a small bird, about 12 cm long and weighing 15-22 g. The tail is straight and not bifurcated like in many other species of swallows. The plumage is blue and black with blue and violet tints. There is a white spot on the throat [4] .
Voice
The song is chirping. The sounds that a bird makes can be transmitted into Russian as “witch” and “vit-wit” [4] .
Blue swallows breed in the dry season, when the river level is the lowest: in March - in Sierra Leone , in October – March - in Liberia , in January and June - in Ghana [4] .
Blue swallows are carnivorous. The diet includes a variety of dipterans (especially horseflies ), coleoptera , hymenoptera , dragonflies and termites [4] .
The range includes many countries of West and Central Africa: Sierra Leone , Guinea , Liberia , Côte d'Ivoire , Ghana , Benin , Nigeria , Central African Republic , Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola . Blue swallows settle near rivers and reservoirs in tropical forests and mangroves. The species is non-migratory; it performs only rare migrations over short distances [4] .
