Does anyone have any photographs of Red-rumped Swallows, that they would be
prepared to loan out for a good cause? The Birds Australia Rarities
Committee has taken it on board to look at the identification problems when
trying to separate Hirundo daurica from Hirundo striolata with a view to
establishing the status of Australian records and at the same time assist
our neighbouring countries.
To date there seems to be very little material published on how to reliably
separate the two species. It being likely that the Australian taxonomists
will follow others by treating the two as separate species in the future it
has and become important that we try and resolve the identification
problems (somebody has to do it).
To add to this does anyone have any experience or views on how to separate
the two species? A 'red-rumped' swallow is now a regular visitor in small
numbers to North Queensland but next to nothing has been done to confirm
identification as either daurica or striolata. General consensus is that
the North Queensland birds are daurica? But striolata is known to breed on
Java through to Timor and the Philippines and we cannot necessarily assume
that all the Australian birds are daurica. Likewise any photographs of
striolata would be most useful.
Best Regards
Tony
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