Cliff Swallow
Petrochelidon pyrrhonota
Photo: Dean Hester · iNaturalist · CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 (licence)
Call and song
Recording 1 · song
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Cliff Swallow
Compact swallow with a short, square tail. In flight, looks slightly less angular than other swallows, with more rounded wings. Note pale buffy-orange rump, which separates Cliff from most other swallows in range. Also look for dark throat and pale forehead. Widespread and fairly common, especially in western North America. Breeds under bridges, overpasses, and culverts. Winters in South America. Compare especially with Cave Swallow, which has a paler throat and orange forehead.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 61 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Caribbean Netherlands
- Cayman Islands
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Curaçao
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
- France
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Haiti
- High Seas
- Honduras
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Montserrat
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Russia
- Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin (French part)
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Sint Maarten
- South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
- Spain
- Sweden
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Virgin Islands (U.S.)
