Land Birds · Terrestrial

Lesser striped swallow (Cecropis abysinnica)

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Close-up of a lesser striped swallow, with details of its bold streaking on the underparts, and the orange ear coverts.
The Walsingham Farm, Port Alfred, Eastern Cape (2024).

Smaller and darker than the greater striped swallow, with more prominent blackish striping contrasting strongly with the whiter underparts. Rump darker rufous. Ear coverts rufous (not whitish).

Female has shorter tail streamers than male. Juvenile duller, lacking blue-black gloss above, and has a brown (not rufous) crown, breast and flanks are washed buff and tail streamers are reduced.

15 – 19 cm. 16 – 22 g.

Common resident and intra-African breeding summer migrant in grassland, shrubland, savanna, agricultural lands and suburbia, as well as wetlands.

Birds of Southern Africa (2020).

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Couple of lesser striped swallows (male on the left, female on the right) in the process of building a nest on my stoep. The Walsingham Farm, Port Alfred, Eastern Cape (2024).
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