Featuring one of the bird species that flew away for the winter seems a good choice for the free theme in this week's SMAP.
Although I must confess, none of these photos are from Portugal, since they were taken in my last vacations abroad; and they probably flew away from there to hotter places as well!
Barn swallows are the most widespread of all the swallow species - and there's quite a few of them! And this first photo is actually one of my favourite barn swallow photos, because it's very rare for me to see them perching in a tree branch like this!
The usually way of seeing them, apart frow flying really fast?
That's where you usually see them too, right? Hanging in the electric wires, preening their feathers or just chilling.
One of the ways to identify this species is by the long tail, since the outer tail feathers are huge, creating a bifurcation effect. In Portugal the only species it could maybe be mistaken with is the red rumped swallow, but with a closer look the differences in head and rump would be easily visible.
They are fast and agile flyers, like all swallows, and it's not uncommon to see several of them flying at the same time or perching together. I remember when I was a kid of seeing them in insane numbers perched together, supposedly shortly before the migration started.
They weren't that many here, and the ones on this wire were more intersted in relaxing by the sea, since this was pretty close to a beautiful beach. Fortunately for me, they weren't shy to pose for the camera, and I was able to get pretty close!
I'll have to wait until next Spring to see them again; house martins are usually the first to appear where I live, but I'm sure these beauties will come not long after. Maybe I'll snap some portuguese swallows next time!
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