When do swallows arrive in and leave the UK?

A summer visitor in the records: sightings rise sharply from early April, are near their peak by mid April, and fall away after mid October.

When do swallows arrive in the UK?

In the GBIF records, UK sightings of the barn swallow rise sharply from early April and are near their peak by mid April.

When do swallows leave the UK?

UK sightings fall away after mid October.

Where do swallows go in winter?

From December to February the strongest signal in the effort-adjusted GBIF records is around South Africa. The globe shows the whole winter range month by month.

Barn swallow in the UK, month by month

Bars: this species’ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY 4.0 only), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 488,919 UK records (occurrence search API, country=GB, weekly). Dates come from sightings, not a survey, so treat them as a guide.

See the barn swallow migration on the 3D globe →

About the barn swallow

The barn swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world, occurring on all continents, with vagrants reported even in Antarctica. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply forked tail. …

From the Wikipedia article “Barn swallow” (revision 1380253423), CC BY-SA 4.0, shortened at a sentence end. Winter/summer areas: country containing the monthly hotspot of effort-adjusted GBIF records, using Natural Earth boundaries (public domain).

Other UK summer visitors: see the full list with arrival and departure dates.