Welcome Swallow FACTSHEET Welcome Swallow

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FACTSHEET Welcome Swallow FACTSHEET Welcome Swallow Common Name: Welcome Swallow This species is well known for its distinctive forked tail. The tail feathers each have a Scientific Name: Hirundo neoxena white spot near the end. Watch out for Noongar Name: Moorningwilboor them skimming around in the air feeding on insects. Conservation Status: Listed as Least Concern under ICUN (2014). All Rottnest Diet: Island’s fauna is protected under the Flies, midges, aerial insects. Rottnest Island Authority Act 1987. Habitat: Woodland wetlands, heath, In the Wild: settlement area, coastal habitat. Welcome swallows are a small passerine bird, otherwise known as a perching bird. Body length: 15-16 cm This is due to having three toes pointing Weight: 10-20 g forward and one backwards. Gestation period: 14-16 days Widespread throughout Australia, swallows on Rottnest used to nest around the Number of young: 1-4 (2-4 eggs) Island’s edges in the caves in the limestone Description: cliffs. When settlers arrived, the swallows also used the structures the settlers built The Welcome Swallow has blue-black upper for nest sites. surfaces, a chestnut forehead, throat and upper-chest, and pale grey under surfaces. These birds now nest in all the Settlement It has dark brown eyes, a black bill and areas as well as in the old cliff sites. Their brown legs. nests are made of mud and plant material and you can see these cup-shaped structures under the eaves of most of the buildings. 1 wildlife Swallows have a diet of small insects Threats: which they commonly catch mid-flight. • Pest birds The calling of a welcome swallow is a • Uncontrolled fire combination of soft warbling tones and twittering with an abrupt whistle to DID YOU KNOW? sound alarm. Welcome swallows were given their name by sailors. Swallows were one of their first Welcome Swallows breed from July to ‘welcomes’ to land as the sight of a swallow January, however can breed any time meant that land was not far away. of the year given the right conditions. After 14 days, the wing feathers on young swallows are large enough for flight. 2 wildlife.

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The Migration of Swallows in South Australia. by A
116 MOl?llA.N-Thc Migrat'ion 'of Swallows in S.A.. The Migration of Swallows in South Australia. By A. ,M. MORGAN, M.B., Ch.B. Four swallows inhabit South Australia. They are the Welcome-Swallow (Hirundo neoaJena), the Tree Swallow (Hylo c7wlidon nigricans caleyi), the Fairy Martin '01' Bottle Swallow (Lagenoplastes ariel), and the White-breasted Swallow (Ohera· mreca lC1tcosternon stonei). None is rconflned to South Aus tralia; 'the first theeebave been recorded from every part of the Australian Commonwealth, the fourth from every State except Tasmania, which it does not visit. Authorities differ considerably in their opinions as to the migratory habits of these birds on the Australian Continent. As regards 'I'asmania, all 'are agreed that they are purely migratory, leaving in: the winter, and returning next summer to nest. The flairy mrurtin is' probably only an occasional visitor, since Littler (Birds of Tas~ania) has not seen it. Gould (Handbook of the Birds 'of Australia) says of the welcome swallows-v'Dbe arrival of this bird in the southern portions of Australia is hailed as a welcome indication of the approach of .spring, and .is associated with precisely the same ideas as those popularly entertained respecting our own pretty swallow 'in Europe. The two species are, in fact, beautiful representatives of each other, and, assimilate ... in their migratory movements." Quoting Caley, he says further, "the earliest perjod of the year that I noticed the 'appearance of swallows. was July 12th, 1803, when 1 saw two . The latest period I 'observed them was 30th Ma~, 1806, when It number of them were flying high in the air." Gould also says, " ,u.
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Noms français des oiseaux du Monde par la Commission internationale des noms français des oiseaux (CINFO) composée de Pierre DEVILLERS, Henri OUELLET, Édouard BENITO-ESPINAL, Roseline BEUDELS, Roger CRUON, Normand DAVID, Christian ÉRARD, Michel GOSSELIN, Gilles SEUTIN Éd. MultiMondes Inc., Sainte-Foy, Québec & Éd. Chabaud, Bayonne, France, 1993, 1re éd. ISBN 2-87749035-1 & avec le concours de Stéphane POPINET pour les noms anglais, d'après Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World par C. G. SIBLEY & B. L. MONROE Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1990 ISBN 2-87749035-1 Source : http://perso.club-internet.fr/alfosse/cinfo.htm Nouvelle adresse : http://listoiseauxmonde.multimania.
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