The Fanti saw-wing, also known as the Fanti rough-winged swallow, is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. The Fanti saw-wing has often described as the most beautiful of the swallows, owing to its uniformly shimmering green plumage.
Region
West Africa
Typical Environment
Occurs from coastal and subcoastal West Africa, including southern Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and adjacent areas, mainly in humid zones. It favors lowland evergreen and moist semi-deciduous forest edges, gallery forests, and secondary growth. Frequently seen over rivers, streams, forest tracks, and clearings where aerial insects concentrate. It also ventures above the canopy and along forest–farm mosaics, especially after rains.
Altitude Range
0–1200 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
Named for the Fante (Fanti) region of coastal Ghana, this saw-wing is famed for its uniformly shimmering green plumage. Males have tiny serrations on the outer primaries that can create a faint buzzing in close flight, giving the group its common name. It often forages over forest streams and clearings and may join loose mixed flocks of swallows and swifts.
Fanti saw-wing in Brufut forest, The Gambia
Temperament
social and active
Flight Pattern
agile flier with short rapid wingbeats and brief glides
Social Behavior
Typically seen in pairs or small groups, sometimes loosely associating with other swallows and swifts. Breeding is in monogamous pairs; nests are placed in natural cavities or short burrows in earthen banks, road cuts, or near streams. Small, loose colonies may form where suitable nest sites are clustered.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Gives high, thin twittering and trilled calls during foraging chases. Flight calls are sharp tseet notes, repeated in quick sequences, especially over water.
Plumage
Uniformly glossy, metallic green to blue-green with a satiny sheen; underparts slightly darker with the same iridescence.
Diet
Catches small aerial insects such as flies, winged ants, termites, and beetles on the wing. Foraging often concentrates over streams, forest gaps, and along edges where emergent insects are abundant. It may feed higher above the canopy during insect hatches and will join mixed-species aerial feeding flocks.
Preferred Environment
Most often above forest streams, along shaded tracks and clearings, and at the forest edge. Also hunts over secondary growth and farm–forest mosaics, especially after rain when insects emerge.
