Hirundo

Hirundo is a genus of passerine birds, subfamily Hirundininae, family Hirundinidae, the swallows and martins, comprising sixteen extant species and the largest genus in its family; the genus name derives from Latin for swallow. Many members have blue backs, red on the face and sometimes the rump or nape, and whitish or rufous underparts, with some species carrying elongated tail streamers and others showing white windows in their tail feathers. The type species, the barn swallow, has achieved a cosmopolitan distribution across the Americas, Africa, Eurasia and Australia, while other species of the genus are confined to the Old World, ranging across Africa through southern Asia to the Pacific islands.