Red Sea Swallow

Taxobox
name = Red Sea Swallow


status = DD | status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Hirundinidae
genus = "Hirundo"
species = "H. perdita"
binomial = "Hirundo perdita"
binomial_authority = Fry & Smith, 1985
synonyms = The Red Sea Swallow ("Hirundo perdita") is a species of bird in the Hirundinidae family. It is possibly endemic to Sudan. It is known only from a single specimen, found in May 1984 at the Sanganeb lighthouse, north-east of Port Sudan, Sudan. However, this enigmatic swallow probably still exists, but the lack of recent records is puzzling. Unidentified swallows have been sighted in Lake Langano (c.20 birds) and in Awash National Park (3-8 birds) in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia, and these could possibly be this speciesVerify source|date=December 2007 . It is alternatively placed in the genus Hirundo.

ource

* BirdLife International 2004. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/10194/all Hirundo perdita] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ] Downloaded on 26 July 2007.

* BirdLife International (2007) Species factsheet: Hirundo perdita. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 14/8/2007

The Red Sea Swallow (Hirundo perdita) is a species of bird in the Hirundinidae family. It is possibly endemic to Sudan. It is known only from a single specimen, found in May 1984 at the Sanganeb lighthouse, north-east of Port Sudan, Sudan. However, this enigmatic swallow probably still exists, but the lack of recent records is puzzling. Unidentified swallows have been sighted in Lake Langano (c.20 birds) and in Awash National Park (3-8 birds) in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia, and these could possibly be this species [verification needed] . It is alternatively placed in the genus Hirundo.

I was on Sanganeb, ringing birds with East African Natural History Society rings, when I found this bird, newly dead, on the roof of the Lighthouse. I was puzzled that I couldn't identify it because there are not many Western Palearctic swallows and I am familiar with them all. Consequently I took detailed photographs but, due to the high humidity and temperature I was unable to save the whole bird, only the wings and tail. These photographs, and the wings and tail, constitute the type specimen, now in the British Museum at Tring. During the two weeks on Sanganeb, large numbers of Barn Swallows and House Martins were passing through, flying north, but amongst them were occasional swallows with short tails and greyish rumps. I can only assume were other examples of H. perdita. However, the point cannot be over-emphasised that all these swallows were migrating north, into the Western Palearctic. Where can they go to breed? They haven't been seen at Eilat or the Gulf so they must fly straight across the Arabian desert to? Zagros Mountains or the Caucasus? Another possibility is that they stop in the mountains fringing the north-east border of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia.

I am indebted to Hilary Fry for his invaluable assistance in determining the taxonomy of this bird and in assuming primary authorship of the paper for Ibis, the journal of the British Ornithologist's Union. I am informed that Hirundo perdita has been re-classified as Petrochelidon perdita.

Don Smith