TSUBAME
Pacific Swallow
Hirundo tahitica
The Pacific swallow lives throughout east Asia. This non-migratory bird usually lives near the coast but is now increasingly found in the upland forests, though still tending to live near water and open fields. This is a small swallow, 13 cm (a bit over 5 inches), and has a red face and throat with a blue back and brown wings and tail.
Insects are the primary diet of Pacific swallows. Unlike some other birds who simply fly through the air with their mouths open hoping for dinner, these swallows will perch, waiting for a swarm of bugs to come by. Then they chase them, executing graceful arcs and dives as they hunt.
Pacific swallows build their mud nests on vertical surfaces under overhangs which protect them from damaging rains. In less populated areas, these are on cliffsides, but swallows will also build on bridges and other man-made structures, preferring those which are uninhabited. Their nests have solid walls constructed with mud pellets from riverbanks which are carried in the birds' beaks. They mix this mud with dry grass and line their cup shaped nests with their own feathers. At times there will be fairly large colonies in a good nesting spot, though these are never as large as the flocks formed by barn swallows. Usually a nest will contain three of their long pointed brown eggs.
It is thought to be bad luck to kill any kind of swallow, especially if they're nesting on your roof, as here they will protect your house from lightning and fire.
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sources:
Pacific Swallow
wiki-Pacific Swallow
Swallow photo by: Johnny Wee, Creative Commons license
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