Striated Swallow

The striated swallow is 19 cm long with a deeply forked tail. It has blue upperparts other than a reddish collar (sometimes absent) and streaked chestnut rump. The face and underparts are white with heavy dark streaking. The wing are brown. The sexes are alike but juveniles are duller and browner, with a paler rump and shorter outer tail feathers. There are four races: C. s. striolata breeds in Taiwan, The Philippines and Indonesia. C. s. mayri breeds from northeastern India to northwestern Myanmar and northeastern Bangladesh. It has broader streaks than nominate striolata. C. s. stanfordi breeds from northeastern Myanmar to northern Thailand. It has broad streaks. C. s. vernayi breeds locally in western Thailand. It is more rufous below than the nominate race, and is only faintly streaked on the rump. The contact call is pin, the alarm is chi-chi-chi, and the song is a soft twittering. This species, particularly subspecies mayri is very similar to red-rumped swallow of the race japonicus, but is larger, more heavily streaked, and has a less distinct neck collar.

The island subspecies are essentially resident, but the continental races mayri and stanfordi are partial migrants which move south in the winter.