Southern and eastern Australia generally, including Tasmania. Absent from much of the center and north-west. Also New Zealand, where it self-introduced, Lord Howe and Norfolk islands.
Nest
Cup-shaped, composed of mud pellets reinforced with small pieces of grass, lined with grass, horse-hair, and feathers, built under the eaves of buildings, verandas, bridges and in caves and mine shafts.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 6, usually 4 or 5; white, freckled and spotted red-brown, usually at larger end; oval; about 19 x 13 mm. Incubation: 13 - 22 days; mostly by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 12 - 30 days, usually 17 - 23 days. Fed by both parents.
Subspecies
Tahiti Swallow (Hirundo tahitica) and Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993), cross-regional species, are retained as separate species contra Turbott (1990) who includes neoxena as a subspecies of Tahiti Swallow (Hirundo tahitica). The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group is aware that phylogenetic analyses have been published which have proposed generic rearrangements which may affect this species, but prefers to wait until work by other taxonomists reveals how these changes affect the entire groups involved.
Forms a superspecies with Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), Red-chested Swallow (Hirundo lucida), Angola Swallow (Hirundo angolensis), Tahiti Swallow (Hirundo tahitica), White-throated Swallow (Hirundo albigularis) and Ethiopian Swallow (Hirundo aethiopica). Sometimes treated as conspecific with Tahiti Swallow (Hirundo tahitica), but differs morphologically (especially in bill size and in tail structure and markings). Subspecies poorly defined; tail length increases slightly from south-eastern Australia west to Eyre Peninsula and decreases in western Australia, more so in males than in females. Proposed subspecies parsonsi from north-eastern Australia (eastern Queensland), supposedly with less white in tail, considered indistinguishable.
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Tahiti Swallow (Hirundo tahitica).
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
neoxena Gould, 1843 - South-eastern Australia, Tasmania and islands in Bass Strait, west to the head of the Great Australian Bight and north to southern Lake Eyre and northern Murray - Darling River Drainage basins, and along the eastern coast to Rockingham Bay, Qld, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, NI, SI and Stewart Islands, New Zealand, a straggler to Kermadec and Chatham Islands, wintering throughout eastern Australia, north to Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait islands.
carteri (Mathews, 1912) - South-western Australia, north to North West Cape, WA, north-east to the upper reaches of the Murchison River Drainage Basin, WA and east to around head of the Great Australian Bight, wintering north through all Pilbara, WA to south-western Great Sandy Desert.
Similar Species
Mostly readily confused with Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) which has whiter underparts and a black chest band separarting the red of the throat from the white of the breast, and with Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica) which lacks the red throat and has a rusty or chestnut rump. In brief views in flight with Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans) and Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon ariel) both of which have much less forked tail and white o off-white rumps.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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