The most attractive, supple and fluent of the swallows and martins, with distinctive dark throat and all-dark upperparts; adult has long tail streamers.

Swallows are among the favourite birds of birdwatchers, although they might be outvoted by fans of the Robin in a public poll. They are symbolic of summer, yet they are in serious decline in many areas where modern buildings offer few nesting opportunities. A nesting pair needs an old barn, or a shed with a broken window – even an open car port will do in a rural village. Unlike House Martins and Swifts they are not at home in towns: Swallows require open spaces, where they can fly much lower down and swoop close to the ground as they hunt flies. Insecticides are also denying them food; even the drugs used to ‘worm’ cattle have had a lasting effect on the populations of insect-eating birds such as Swallows, since they make cow-pats sterile and devoid of flies, beetles, and other insects.