Know your swallows from your swifts? Tom Hibbert from The Wildlife Trusts takes a look at some of the differences…

By The Wildlife Trusts

Published: Tuesday, 14 March 2023 at 12:00 am


The swallow and the swift have a lot in common. They’re both aerial experts that eat and drink on the wing. They’re both summer visitors to the UK, making long migrations from Africa each spring. Yet despite these similarities, these two species aren’t even closely related!

What’s the difference between a swallow and a swift?

How to tell the difference between a swallow and a swift

Swallows (also known as barn swallows) are one of our most familiar and beloved birds, heralding the arrival of summer as they return from Africa each year. They have long, pointed wings and a deeply forked tail with long tail streamers.

Young swallows don’t have tail streamers, but their tail is still deeply forked. They’re glossy blue on their back, with a white breast and belly. They have a dark band across the upper breast, like a collar, and a rusty red throat and face, though these just look dark at a distance.

Swifts are a similar length but have much longer wings. Their wings are also more pointed than a swallow’s and sweep smoothly backwards like a sickle – they look a bit like boomerangs, with a body stuck to the middle.

Their short tail is often held together in a point, but is slightly forked when it’s fanned out. The fork is much shallower than that of a swallow’s tail, and it lacks the long, thin tail streamers. Swifts are very dark birds, with sooty-black feathers all over – apart from a small, subtly paler patch on the throat. This patch is more obvious in juvenile swifts, where it also extends onto the face.