Every spring, four familiar visitors return to our skies: Swifts, Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins. They bring a real sense that warmer weather has arrived, filling the sky with swooping, chattering and, in the case of Swifts, their unmistakable screams!

Although they can be tricky to tell apart at first, once you know what to look for, it becomes much easier. They also have some fascinating differences in the way they live, feed and raise their young.

One thing they all have in common is that they are summer visitors to the UK. But they don’t all leave at the same time: Swifts are usually the first to head south, often disappearing in August, while Swallows and Martins can stay with us into September or even October.

Swifts

The Swift is a spectacular bird to watch and the largest of this group. They are mostly dark brown all over, with long, narrow, curved wings that give them a distinctive boomerang shape as they fly.

I absolutely love their high-pitched, screaming calls as they race around in family groups. These gatherings are sometimes known as “screaming parties”, a wonderfully fitting name!

Swifts spend an extraordinary amount of their lives in the air. In fact, they do almost everything on the wing: feeding, drinking, mating and even sleeping. They only land when they need to nest and raise their young, which means you will almost never see a Swift sitting on a branch or wire.

They feed on tiny insects and other airborne invertebrates, including spiders that have become airborne on their webs. Watching a group of Swifts twisting and turning through the sky is an amazing sight.

By August, they are usually preparing to leave us and begin their long journey back to Africa.

Swallows

Swallows and House Martins are probably the two that cause the most confusion. When you first start watching them, they can look remarkably similar. But once your eye gets used to their shapes and markings, the differences become much easier to spot.

The Swallow has long, elegant wings and a distinctive deeply forked tail with long streamers. If you see one sitting on a wire, it’s much easier to identify!

Look out for their beautiful glossy dark-blue upperparts, contrasting with a white underside, and unlike the House Martin, there’s no white rump to see. They also have a distinctive reddish throat and forehead, which is another useful feature when trying to identify them.

Swallows are often seen swooping low over fields, lakes and gardens as they catch insects in flight. They are incredibly agile and seem to spend much of their time zipping around in pursuit of their next meal.

They usually leave the UK around September to October, beginning their long migration south.

A strange Swallow story!

Here’s a wonderfully weird piece of folklore: people once believed that Swallows hibernated underwater at the bottom of ponds during the winter!

It sounds incredible to us now, but before migration was properly understood, people came up with all sorts of explanations for where these birds disappeared to. Thankfully, we now know that they make an incredible journey to warmer parts of the world instead.

House Martin

The House Martin is the smallest of these three familiar birds and, once you know what to look for, is quite distinctive.

They have blue-black upperparts and a bright white underside, with a black tail, and the easiest way to spot one at a distance is the distinctive white rump just above the tail, a feature Swallows and Sand Martins don’t share. Unlike the Swallow, their tail is much shorter and doesn’t have those long streamers.

In flight, their compact shape can make them look a little like a mini aeroplane as they zip through the sky!

House Martins are particularly active in the mornings and evenings and can often be seen flocking together as they feed. They are sociable little birds and are a lovely sight around villages, towns and open countryside.

One important thing to remember if you have House Martins nesting around your home: they often reuse their old nests. So, if you find an old nest under your eaves, it’s worth leaving it in place, it’s not just good manners, their nests are legally protected while they’re in use, so it’s actually an offence to remove or disturb one with birds still around. What looks like an empty nest may well become someone’s home again the following year.

Like Swallows, House Martins usually leave us around September to October.

Sand Martin

The Sand Martin is slightly smaller and slimmer than the House Martin and is a little different in appearance too.

Rather than the blue-black colouring of a House Martin, Sand Martins have paler brown upperparts and a distinctive brown band across the throat and upper breast.

And here’s where they really stand out: Sand Martins don’t build mud nests like House Martins. They dig burrows instead.

They excavate tunnels in sandy banks, particularly along rivers and in sandy cliffs, where they create nesting colonies. Because they are highly sociable birds, you may see lots of burrow entrances together, with birds darting in and out.

There are plenty of places to see Sand Martins in Herefordshire, particularly around suitable rivers and sandy banks. Watching a colony is a real treat, especially when the birds are busy feeding and returning to their burrows.

So, how do you tell them apart?

Once you know their key features, it becomes much easier:

• Swift: Dark brown, long curved “boomerang” wings, fast and screaming through the sky. Almost never lands except to nest.
• Swallow: Glossy blue-black upperparts (no white rump), white underside, reddish throat and a long, deeply forked tail with streamers.
• House Martin: Blue-black above with a distinctive white rump, bright white underneath, with a shorter black tail and no long streamers.
• Sand Martin: Smaller and slimmer, pale brown above (no white rump), with a brown throat band. Nests in burrows rather than mud nests.

These four birds are all fascinating in their own way, and once you start looking closely, you’ll soon find yourself spotting them without even thinking about it.

So next time you see one darting across the sky, take a moment to have a closer look. Is it a Swift, Swallow, House Martin or Sand Martin?

And if it’s August and you suddenly realise the skies have gone noticeably quieter, you may just have noticed one of the first signs that our summer visitors are getting ready for their long journey south.

Frequently Asked Questions