From Australia, with breeding first recorded in 1958.  Now common in open country especially near water in lowland New Zealand, except in Otago and Southland where they are still uncommon.

The head and back is blue-black and the forehead, throat and chest is rufous.  The underparts are dull white and the deeply forked tail has a row of white spots near the tip.  The call is a twittering ‘twsit’.

Welcome swallows eat invertebrates, caught on the wing.  Mainly flies, including midges and blowflies, small beetles and moths.

Breeding is between August and March.  Both birds build the half cup mud and grass nest which is lined with dry grass, rootlets, hair, wool and a layer of feathers.  It is attached to a rough vertical surface under bridges, culverts, eaves of houses, sheds, caves, rock outcrops or under overhanging banks.  The clutch of 2 – 7 pale pink eggs, variably flecked reddish brown, is incubated by the female for 15 – 19 days.  Both parents feed the chicks which fledge at 18 – 23 days old.  The young return to the nest to roost and continue to be fed for c. 3 weeks.

Welcome swallows are often seen at the Wharf dam on Tiri.

Photography by:  Dr Kerry Rodgers ©

References: Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 2000 The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking.
Moon, G The Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds.