The welcome swallow is a small passerine bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae that is native to Australia and nearby islands. It has self-introduced into New Zealand in the middle of the twentieth century. It is very similar to the Pacific swallow with which it is often considered conspecific.
Region
Australasia
Typical Environment
Found across most of Australia, Tasmania, and widely in New Zealand, favoring open country near water, coastal margins, farmland, and urban areas. It readily exploits human-made structures for nesting, including sheds, verandas, culverts, and bridges. The species also uses forest edges, wetlands, and estuaries for feeding flights. Local movements and seasonal shifts occur in response to weather and insect availability. It avoids dense forests and the most arid interior where aerial insect prey is scarce.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1800 m
Climate Zone
Temperate
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
This agile swallow often nests on buildings and bridges, shaping mud pellets into a cup nest under sheltered ledges. It self-introduced to New Zealand in the mid-20th century and is now widespread there. Longer tail streamers and paler underparts help distinguish it from the closely related Pacific swallow.
Copulating welcome swallows
Chicks the day after fledging
Temperament
social and active
Flight Pattern
agile flier with rapid wingbeats and short glides
Social Behavior
Often forms loose colonies or small groups, especially outside the breeding season. Pairs build mud cup nests on sheltered ledges and may raise multiple broods in a season. Both adults share incubation and feeding duties. Roosting flocks gather near water or on structures when conditions are favorable.
Migratory Pattern
Partial migrant
Song Description
A musical twittering warble interspersed with thin, buzzy notes. Calls include sharp chips and soft contact twitters given in flight and around the nest.
Plumage
Glossy blue-black upperparts with a rufous forehead and throat, contrasting with pale buff to whitish underparts and a slight dark breast line.
Diet
Feeds almost entirely on flying insects such as flies, beetles, moths, wasps, and aerial aquatic emergents. It captures prey on the wing with swift, agile turns and short glides. Over water it skims for insects and may sip water in flight. During cool or windy weather it forages lower and closer to shelter where insects concentrate.
Preferred Environment
Most often hunts over open fields, pastures, lakes, rivers, and shorelines where insect densities are high. It also forages along roads, around towns, and at forest edges. Calm, warm conditions that produce aerial insect swarms are ideal.
