The birds I photographed most in Sindhudurg were not in the forest. They were on the verandah, six feet from where I was drinking tea, and they had been there long before I arrived.
The birds that moved in
Wire-tailed Swallows are named for two absurdly fine filaments trailing off the outer tail feathers. You cannot see them at a glance and you cannot miss them once you have. They are glossy blue-black above, pure white below, with a neat chestnut cap.
Unlike most swallows they do not really flock. They live in pairs, hold a small territory near water, and stay put — which is why the same two birds were on the same lamp on all four mornings.
Why they choose buildings
The natural nest site for this species is a rock face near a river — a vertical surface with an overhang above it and water below. A house is a rock face with better maintenance.
- Verandah ceilings and porch roofs give the overhang.
- Culverts and bridges over the Konkan streams are used heavily.
- Wet mud from the same stream is the building material.
- Insects come to the lights at night and hang around in the morning, so the food is on site.
The nest is a half-cup of mud pellets stuck to the wall, lined with feathers, and they rebuild and reuse rather than starting fresh each year. If your building suits them once, it suits them for a decade.
Living with them
The homestay owner told me they had nested there for as long as he had run the place, and that the only rule was to leave the verandah light off during the nesting weeks so the adults were not confused about when to sleep. He also had a plank fixed under the nest to catch droppings — the entire management strategy, and it works.
It is worth saying plainly: knocking down a swallow nest is both unnecessary and, for a nesting native bird, illegal. A plank and a bit of patience solve the problem completely.
Telling the Konkan swallows apart
- Wire-tailed Swallow: unmarked pure white underparts, chestnut cap, two tail wires. Resident, in pairs, near water.
- Barn Swallow: dark breast band, long forked tail, winter visitor in large numbers.
- Red-rumped Swallow: buff-orange rump band, squarer tail, builds a mud tunnel nest.
- Dusky Crag Martin: plain sooty brown, no white below, sticks to cliffs and forts.
- House Swift: not a swallow at all. Stiffer, faster wings, white rump, almost never perches on a lamp.
Photographing swallows without losing your mind
Swallows in flight are a genuinely hard subject and there is no need to start there. Perched birds are the shortcut, and a verandah gives you perched birds at close range in good light.
- Photograph them where they land, not where they fly. Watch for ten minutes and you will find they use the same two or three perches.
- Get level with the perch. Shooting up at a lamp gives you a silhouette and a blown-out ceiling.
- Expose for the white belly, which will clip long before you notice.
- Backlight the tail. The wires only show against a bright background — this is the one time you want the sun in front of you.
- Do not use flash near a nest, and do not stand under one for long. Sitting quietly at normal distance is why these birds ignored me by the second morning.
A note on bird names
We identify these birds ourselves, from photographs taken in the field, and we do not always get it right. A great many Indian species are close cousins separated only by a head pattern, a leg colour or a wingbar, and several have been split or renamed in recent years — so two good field guides can genuinely disagree about the same bird.
Where we are not certain, we say so rather than guess. If you think we have named a bird wrongly here, please tell us — we are still learning this ourselves, and we would far rather correct a name than leave a wrong one standing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Wire-tailed Swallow?
Clean white underparts with no breast band, a chestnut crown, and two very fine wire-like streamers on the outer tail feathers.
Do Wire-tailed Swallows migrate?
Indian birds are largely resident, moving only locally. They stay in pairs rather than forming the big flocks that Barn Swallows do.
Why do swallows nest on houses?
A verandah ceiling or culvert mimics the sheltered rock ledge they naturally use, and it comes with mud, water and insects nearby.
Can I remove a swallow nest from my house?
Not while it is active — these are protected native birds. Fix a plank beneath it to catch droppings and it stops being a problem.
Where in Sindhudurg do you see them?
Around homestays, culverts, small bridges and any building close to a stream or paddy field.
Related: Sindhudurg Monsoon Birding Guide and Kadbanwadi Grassland.