Wire-tailed Swallow (Hirundo smithii) [XC300347]
by Hans Matheve from Gibe gorge area, Ethiopia (song)
Wire-tailed Swallow (Hirundo smithii) [XC300346]
by Peter Boesman from Gibe gorge area, Ethiopia (song)
Subspecies
Sometimes considered to form a superspecies with White-bibbed Swallow (Hirundo nigrita), but substantial plumage and other morphological differences, combined with extent of range overlap in Africa (Congo Basin), make this unlikely.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
smithii Leach, 1818 - Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal, southern Mali and central Ivory Coast east to central and southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, and southern (outside central rainforest zone) to northern Namibia, northern Botswana and north-eastern South Africa.
filifera Stephens, 1826 - Southern Uzbekistan, southern Tadjikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, south-western Nepal, Myanmar, northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and central Vietnam.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet