Scientific name: Hirundo dimidiata
It has glossy blue upperparts and grey-white underparts. The upper wings, underwing flight feathers and forked tail are blackish-blue. The underwing coverts are a darker shade of grey-white. The lack of white in the tail is a distinction from similar Hirundo species. The outer feathers are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner than the adult, with shorter outer tail feathers.
The pearl-breasted swallow is sparsely distributed, but can be locally common. In southern South Africa it prefers valley bushveld, lowland fynbos and farmland.
It mainly eats insects, supplemented occasionally with grass seeds. It forages low on the ground (often below the canopy in woodland), hawking flying insects such as termite alates. It also catches prey flushed by fires, cars or horses.
